Stablecoin issuer Circle (NYSE: CRCL) and payments-technology firm ACI Worldwide (NYSE: ACIW) said in an investor-relations announcement on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, that they will pilot USDC settlement on Colombia’s Bre-B instant-payments network, with Colombia as the starting point for a broader Latin American rollout.
The pilot pairs Circle’s USDC infrastructure with ACI Connetic, ACI’s cloud-based payments orchestration platform, so that financial institutions can test stablecoin settlement alongside traditional rails inside the infrastructure they already use. Circle described the partnership as a response to growing interest from financial institutions across the region.
A central bank’s network, not a sandbox
Bre-B is Colombia’s interoperable instant-payments system, run by the country’s central bank, Banco de la República. ACI built the central infrastructure behind it. The network recorded over 500 million transactions in its first five months of operation, as of March 2026, and passed more than 100 million registered payment keys over the same stretch, according to a research summary of the network’s early usage.
The pairing puts a US-regulated stablecoin issuer on a payments network operated by an emerging-market central bank, a test of whether dollar-pegged tokens can settle inside incumbent banking rails rather than on parallel networks. “The conversation around stablecoins is moving from possibility to practicality,” said Craig Ramsey, ACI’s global head of account-to-account payments.
While this pilot runs on USDC, Circle described the setup as technology-agnostic, with ACI’s platform built to support other payment networks and digital-asset providers over time. The stated goal is a multi-rail setup in which institutions test compliance and operational models inside frameworks they already know.
Circle’s next Latin American step
Circle had already secured a Latin American foothold through Mercado Pago, the fintech arm tied to one of the region’s best-known online retailers, which integrated USDC in Argentina. The company has pushed into dozens of emerging markets as stablecoins move mainstream.
No timeline or duration is given for the Colombia pilot, and no participating bank is named in the announcement.
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