Circle and ACI Worldwide test USDC settlement in Colombia

What happened

Circle and ACI Worldwide said on October 27 that they are running a USDC settlement proof of concept in Colombia, connecting Circle's dollar-backed stablecoin infrastructure to ACI Connetic, the cloud-based platform ACI uses to route transactions across separate payment systems. Decrypt and crypto.news both reported the announcement.

Colombia is the first market because ACI already supplies the core plumbing behind Bre-B, the country's interoperable instant payments network. That work, carried out with Banco de la República, includes the addressing directory that lets participants locate one another, a clearing and settlement engine that runs around the clock, and the interoperability services that connect participating providers.

The stated aim is to show financial institutions how a regulated digital dollar can operate alongside the rails they already use rather than displace them, an arrangement the companies call a multi-rail ecosystem in which real-time account-to-account transfers and stablecoin settlement coexist. ACI Connetic handles conventional payment methods, card transactions and digital assets on a single platform, and the companies say it is built to support other networks and digital-asset providers over time.

Both firms stressed that the project is exploratory. No live USDC connection to Bre-B has been announced, no participating banks have been identified, and no date has been given for commercial transactions.

Why it matters

The framing reflects a change in how banks are approaching stablecoins. Instead of debating whether the technology is workable, institutions are asking how digital dollars fit into the treasury operations, governance and settlement processes they already run. Craig Ramsey, ACI's global head of account-to-account payments, said the conversation around stablecoins "is moving from possibility to practicality," describing the effort as a way to bring regulated stablecoins into workflows banks already trust.

Kash Razzaghi, Circle's chief commercial officer, said financial institutions across Latin America are examining how stablecoins can support the evolution of payments "within the infrastructure they already use," casting USDC as a bridge between traditional finance and the digital economy. Colombia is a logical testing ground: it has heavy cross-border remittance volumes and a population familiar with holding dollar-denominated savings as a hedge against inflation.

What the data shows

The only volume figure attached to the announcement concerns the existing network, not the stablecoin. In March, ACI reported that Bre-B had processed more than 500 million transactions during its first five months. Those transfers ran on conventional payments infrastructure, and the collaboration has not reported any USDC transaction volume, settlement value or customer activity. The distinction matters because the companies are evaluating an additional settlement method, not announcing that current Bre-B traffic has moved onto a blockchain.

Background

Circle has been widening its reach across emerging markets, and Colombia follows an earlier Latin American foothold in Argentina, where Mercado Pago added USDC. In a recent assessment, crypto.news reported that Circle plans to enter roughly 40 emerging and developing markets, with CEO Jeremy Allaire naming Latin America among the regions where the company sees demand, although individual launch schedules and licensing arrangements for those markets have not been disclosed.

Circle has also worked with Standard Chartered on bank-led USDC services that give eligible institutions access to digital-dollar custody and transfers through established channels. Colombia already hosts other stablecoin-related products, including a MoneyGram offering aimed at consumer payments, but the ACI project concerns how institutions organise settlement rather than retail transfers.

What is still unclear

Several operational questions remain open. The announcement does not say which banks will take part in Colombia, whether the USDC transfers would be domestic or cross-border, or how conversion between USDC and Colombian pesos would operate. It also leaves unspecified whether settlement would occur directly on a public blockchain or through an intermediary arrangement, and it provides no expected transaction fees or processing times.

What to watch

The signals to watch are whether participating institutions are named, whether the project advances from proof of concept to a commercial launch, and whether a technical connection to Bre-B is ever described in detail. For now the arrangement is a test of how well stablecoin settlement fits inside bank workflows, not a live service.

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