Digital Payments & Fintech · Colombia
Fintech & payments regulation in Colombia (2026)
Colombia shaded by its digital payments & fintech status
Fintech and digital payments in Colombia: licensing regime, under Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (SFC) and Banco de la República; SEDPE regime (Law 1735 of 2014), low-value payment systems & acquiring (Decree 1692 of 2020), open finance (Decree 1297 of 2022, now mandatory under Decree 0368 of 2026), and the Bre-B instant payment rail..
Colombia has a clear, in-force licensing regime for digital payments and e-money. Specialized Electronic Deposit and Payment Companies (SEDPEs) are licensed and supervised by the Superintendencia Financiera under Law 1735 of 2014, low-value payment systems and the acquiring activity are regulated by Decree 1692 of 2020, open finance moved from voluntary (Decree 1297 of 2022) to mandatory (Decree 0368 of 2026), and the central bank's interoperable instant-payment rail Bre-B went live in October 2025. BNPL, by contrast, has only supervisory guidance and no dedicated statute.
Key points
Law 1735 of 2014 created Sociedades Especializadas en Depósitos y Pagos Electrónicos (SEDPEs), a dedicated license for capturing electronic deposits and making payments/transfers, authorized and supervised by the SFC. They cannot grant credit and must hold customer funds in sight deposits at supervised entities or the central bank; authorized players include Movii, Coink, Dale!, Powwi, Ding, Global66 and others.
The Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (SFC) authorizes, inspects and supervises financial institutions including SEDPEs and payment-system administrators, while Banco de la República operates and oversees core payment infrastructure.
Decree 1692 of 2020 (amending Decree 2555 of 2010) restructured low-value payment systems (SPBV), separating clearing/settlement from issuing and acquiring, opening the acquiring activity to credit institutions, SEDPEs and a new category of non-supervised acquirers subject to SFC registration.
Decree 1297 of 2022 introduced a voluntary open-finance framework (including payment initiation), with SFC External Circular 004 of 2024 defining API, security and architecture standards; Decree 0368 of 2026 made the Open Finance System mandatory for SFC-supervised entities.
Banco de la República's interoperable instant-payment system Bre-B entered operation on 6 October 2025 after a controlled rollout from 23 September, connecting banks, e-wallets and PSPs via a centralized alias directory (DICE) and settlement mechanism (MOL), governed by the public-private CIPI committee.
Buy-now-pay-later is growing rapidly but has no dedicated statute; the SFC has issued supervisory guidance rather than a specific licensing regime, so BNPL providers operate under general consumer-credit and financial-supervision rules.
Timeline - major decisions & events
The Ministry of Finance issued Decree 0368, replacing the voluntary framework of Decree 1297/2022 with a binding mandatory open finance system. Banks, insurers, pension funds, and brokerage firms must share customer data (minimum 12 months of transactional history) via APIs with authorised third-party providers once the SFC issues technical standards, with 12-month implementation windows per standard.
Presidencia de la República (DAPRE) ↗The Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (SFC) extended the deadline for supervised entities to meet Circular 004/2024 architecture and security standards to 30 months from the original issuance, pushing the compliance horizon to mid-2028. The SFC cited technical complexity and anticipated alignment with the forthcoming mandatory open finance decree.
Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (SFC) ↗The Banco de la República launched Bre-B, Colombia's interoperable instant-payments infrastructure, on 6 October 2025, after key registration opened in July 2025. By January 2026 the system had 218 participating entities and five operating low-value payment networks, enabling real-time account-to-account transfers across institutions via unique payment keys.
Banco de la República ↗The SFC issued the first comprehensive technical and security standards for open finance under Decree 1297/2022, establishing API interoperability requirements, consumer data-handling obligations, and rules for supervised entities to license technology to third-party providers. Entities had 18 months to meet architecture standards and 6 months for other open-finance instructions.
Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (SFC) ↗Colombia became the third country in Latin America to regulate open finance, amending Decree 2555/2010 to allow supervised entities to share and commercialise financial-consumer data under a voluntary architecture. The decree introduced payment initiation services as a new regulated activity and directed the SFC to set API interoperability standards.
Ministerio de Hacienda / Función Pública (Gestor Normativo) ↗The SFC operationalised the controlled testing space (Espacio Controlado de Prueba) created by Decree 1234/2020 by publishing detailed admission criteria, prudential requirements, testing-period rules (up to two years), and consumer-protection obligations for fintech firms testing innovative products under temporary SFC supervision.
Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (SFC) ↗Colombia - other topics
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