Achievements, Promises, and Opportunities of Bre-B: Colombia’s Instant Payments System

(Leer en Español/ Read in Spanish)

Introduction: Bre-B As the Outstanding Student in Latin America’s Digital Payments Classroom

Bre-B has undoubtedly become a landmark initiative for the development of Colombia’s digital payments ecosystem. It showcases the opportunities that Instant Payment Systems (IPS) and more broadly, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), particularly its payments layer, can unlock. This is especially relevant considering that, according to the latest Global Findex data, only 49% of Colombian adults have made or received a digital payment (World Bank, 2025).

With approximately 35 million registered users, 103 million registered aliases (or “keys,” averaging three per user), nearly 607 million transactions (amounting to USD 25 billion) since its launch in October 2025, an average ticket of USD 43, and more than 170 participant entities, Bre-B demonstrates the scale of adoption achieved in recent months, as well as its potential for continued expansion.

While this progress is worth celebrating, it is critical to evaluate both the opportunities and the future challenges of consolidating Bre-B. Its design and implementation required significant time and resources, especially to align expectations between incumbent financial institutions (primarily banks and cooperatives) and new entrants and disruptors such as fintechs, platforms, digital wallets, and certain non-financial players. The overarching goal has been to establish a clear roadmap to continue promoting financial inclusion, and therefore national development, by building on what has already been achieved, particularly through Colombia’s Payments Systems Forum.

Building On What Has Been Built: Someone’s Gotta Pay

Persistent debates remain around several issues, particularly the role of Banco de la República, the Central Bank of Colombia, as regulator and administrator of Bre-B as an IPS. The system incorporates previously existing private IPS solutions, such as Transfiya (from ACH, the automated clearing house owned by Colombia’s major banks) and Entrecuentas (from Redeban, a low-value payment system that also acts as a hub within Bre-B), as a mechanism to enforce full interoperability among participating financial institutions (BIS.org, 2024).

Interoperability entails operational and maintenance costs for the system’s technological infrastructure. During its first three years of operation, these costs will be subsidised by the central bank, but starting in October 2028, each transaction will incur a fee of COP (Colombian Pesos) 6.46 (less than USD 0.01). It remains uncertain who will ultimately bear these costs, especially given the medium-term challenge of promoting additional use cases beyond person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transfers, as outlined in Bre-B’s official roadmap. This discussion unfolds in a country where cash is still widely used for everyday transactions, 77.8% overall, and 87.5% among lower-income segments.

Inside and Outside: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead

Bre-B faces internal and external challenges in the short and medium term. Internally, various fraud modalities have emerged. Externally, there is growing interest in expanding the IPS toward a regional, cross-border framework.

Regarding fraud, implementing real-time payment systems naturally introduces new risks, especially in an era where technological disruption, led by artificial intelligence (AI), is increasing the speed, scope, and sophistication of fraud attempts in both IPS and broader Digital Financial Services (DFS). These risks materialise instantly as well.

Bre-B was designed with a robust fraud prevention and user education framework involving all stakeholders, demonstrating the system’s strong governance model. Participant entities play a critical role in implementing strong security standards in both their transactional channels and back-end systems (processing and clearing); these controls aim to minimise fraud and cyberattack risks. However, operational gaps persist around the immediate reversal of fraudulent or erroneous transactions, an issue that still falls on financial institutions and is typically handled through regular customer service channels. Current transactional limits, around COP 12.1 million (approximately USD 3,100) per day, provide some mitigation.

Some of the monitored fraud modalities include phishing techniques aimed at stealing user credentials by imitating Bre-B’s interface, creating fake applications, sending malicious links via SMS or WhatsApp to confirm transactions, finalise key registration, or respond to high-pressure push notifications (“Your account has been blocked” or “Your key is about to expire”). Once credentials are obtained, fraudsters can execute unauthorised transfers or empty accounts within seconds.

Other advanced techniques, such as QR code (quick response code) spoofing in merchant environments (quishing), fraudulent key enrolment, and the creation of mule accounts, are also gaining traction. In Brazil, a recently detected modality leverages a Trojan virus to hijack Pix real-time transfers by intercepting a user’s key and replacing it with a fraudulent one at the moment of payment, using either human action or an AI agent. The user is shown a fake confirmation screen while funds are redirected to the fraudsters.

While these fraud techniques are not new, their sophistication has increased due to AI-powered tools and emergent AI agents that enhance the effectiveness of social engineering, particularly among users who are only beginning their digital adoption journey. This is critical given that, according to the Colombian Financial Superintendency (SFC), by 2026, 83% of financial transactions in Colombia are conducted through digital channels, compared to 40% in 2010.

Inclusive, Not Exclusive

The emerging segment enabling Bre-B’s expansion is also the most vulnerable to fraud. Addressing this requires large-scale user education campaigns, efforts that have been undertaken by Banco de la República, participant entities, and industry associations such as Asobancaria and Colombia Fintech, through awareness materials and Bre-B usage guidance within their systems and applications (Central Bank of Colombia, 2025). These initiatives emphasise prudence and individual responsibility.

Additionally, the Banco de la República recently updated Bre-B’s regulatory framework (Central Bank of Colombia, 2026). If a participant entity experiences a technological incident interrupting instant payments and transfers, it must inform users promptly with clear and timely communications. This aims to enhance system transparency. In this context, the question is not whether sophisticated, large-scale fraud will reach Bre-B, but when.

The central issue is how to manage risks effectively, not only from the central bank, but across all system participants, while continuing to build trust in Bre-B. According to Better Than Cash Alliance (2026), such trust is necessary for medium and long-term impacts to materialise, including reducing cash usage; improving the adoption and quality of DFS with frictionless user experiences; supporting the formalisation and traceability of economic activities among microbusinesses and independent workers; and boosting economic development and competitiveness.

Looking Outside: Bre-B Expansion

On the external front, Bre-B, like other influential IPS models such as Brazil’s Pix and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), has the opportunity to align regional efforts and interconnect multiple real-time payment systems under a unified framework. Fintechs can act as key enablers of real-time cross-border flows, though this requires significant coordination across technology, regulation, and business models. Priority use cases include B2B cross-border payments, stablecoin-enabled transfers, and consumer remittances, and IPS officials from central banks in Colombia, Brazil, and Peru have expressed interest in exploring such regional interconnections (Iupana, 2025).

Furthermore, ACI Worldwide, Bre-B’s core technology provider, has included cross-border capabilities in its short and medium-term roadmap, particularly focusing on U.S.–Latin America payment corridors. This could allow Bre-B to connect with global real-time payment networks and strengthen the mentioned use cases.

Conclusion: From Financial Inclusion to Digital Inclusion

Bre-B represents a fundamental milestone in the development of Colombia’s digital financial ecosystem. Yet significant challenges remain, particularly the expansion and deepening of additional use cases that can meaningfully advance DFS adoption and create tangible progress in financial inclusion, cash reduction, and economic formalisation. Strong and coordinated fraud-prevention efforts are critical, especially as fraud sophistication grows faster than system safeguards. Lessons from mature real-time payment ecosystems should inform Bre-B’s evolution.

Additionally, regional expansion ambitions are viable and promising, particularly for real-time cross-border financial flows. However, they also introduce challenges that must be addressed through coordinated regulatory, technological, and business frameworks.

 

By Santiago Emilio Mora Parada
Associate (Digital Solutions) at Accion
Digital Frontiers Institute Alum

 

Learn more about our Launching and Operating Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems course.

(Also shared on Digital Frontiers on 20 April 2026)