Breaking Down Barriers Between Financial Institutions
Despite the growing popularity of digital payments in Colombia, barriers between financial institutions—such as slow processing times and limited interoperability—have hindered the widespread adoption of electronic transactions. These obstacles make it difficult for individuals and small businesses to fully benefit from digital financial solutions, leaving them grappling with inefficiencies, high fees, and unnecessary complexity.
Enter Bre-B, an innovative payment system designed by the Banco de la República to eliminate these barriers. By enabling seamless, instant, and free transfers across all financial platforms, Bre-B aims to transform the way Colombians interact with money. In this article, we’ll explore how Bre-B works, its groundbreaking features, and the significant impact it’s poised to have on the Colombian economy—helping individuals and businesses alike access a faster, more inclusive financial system.
While electronic payments have steadily gained popularity in Colombia—accelerated further by the pandemic—barriers between financial entities still hinder the widespread adoption of digital transactions. These challenges include slow processing times and limited interoperability among banks, cooperatives, and digital wallets. Bre-B seeks to break these barriers by creating a unified payment system that integrates all financial players in the country.
According to Ana María Prieto, Director of the Payment Systems Department at the Banco de la República, Bre-B will allow users to send money to any account, at any institution, in just 20 seconds. The system will be comparable to existing digital wallets like Nequi, Daviplata, and Transfiya, but with broader interoperability since these services will also be interconnected with Bre-B.
How Bre-B Will Work
Bre-B’s implementation will begin with user registration in July 2025. At that time, customers of participating financial institutions will be able to register a unique identifier—called a “key”—to facilitate sending and receiving money. This key could be a phone number, national ID, email address, or an alphanumeric combination. The key eliminates the need to share account numbers or other sensitive data during transactions.
Notably, Bre-B is not a standalone platform managed by the Banco de la República but an integrated solution operated by financial institutions. Users will interact with the system through their banks’ or cooperatives’ mobile apps, ensuring a familiar and convenient experience. Once registered, users can execute payments or transfers seamlessly within the app environment.
Features and Benefits of Bre-B
Bre-B will support two main types of transactions at launch:
- Person-to-Person Transfers: For sending money to family, friends, or splitting bills among peers.
- Payments to Businesses: Designed to include small merchants, such as neighborhood stores or informal vendors. These payments can be facilitated through simple methods like QR codes, enabling easier adoption of digital payment solutions.
Key Benefits:
- Free Transactions: Person-to-person transactions will be free of charge for users.
- No Fees for Financial Institutions (Initially): The Banco de la República will waive settlement fees for financial institutions during the first three years of operation. Starting in the fourth year, a nominal fee of 3.23 pesos will apply for both sending and receiving entities.
- Reduced Cash Dependency: By encouraging digital payments, Bre-B aims to reduce cash usage and drive the formalization of small businesses, granting them access to financial recognition and opportunities.
Addressing Challenges: Fraud Prevention and User Education
One of the biggest hurdles in developing Bre-B has been implementing robust fraud prevention measures. With risks such as data manipulation and QR code-related scams, the system will feature a confirmation step to validate the identities of senders and recipients before completing transactions.
Additionally, the Banco de la República plans to launch educational campaigns to familiarize users with the new system, ensuring widespread adoption and trust.
Comparison Between PIX in Brazil and Bre-B in Colombia
Both PIX in Brazil and Bre-B in Colombia represent groundbreaking steps toward financial modernization in their respective countries, sharing the common goal of fostering financial inclusion, reducing dependency on cash, and enabling instant digital transactions. Like PIX, Bre-B will connect users across diverse financial entities—including banks, cooperatives, and digital wallets—allowing seamless transfers in seconds. However, while PIX has been widely adopted and offers free transactions for individuals and minimal costs for businesses, Bre-B is set to provide free person-to-person transfers and a temporary fee waiver for financial institutions during its first three years, with a nominal transaction fee introduced later. Additionally, both systems rely on unique identifiers (keys) to simplify payments, but Bre-B is launching within an ecosystem already shaped by existing wallet-based solutions like Nequi and Daviplata, providing it with a head start in digital adoption. PIX, on the other hand, catalyzed Brazil’s transition from cash-heavy transactions to digital payments almost from scratch, establishing a template that likely influenced Bre-B’s design and implementation.
Paving the Way for Financial Inclusion and Opportunity
This system is not just about convenience—it’s about fostering financial inclusion, reducing dependency on cash, and creating opportunities for millions of Colombians to thrive. With Bre-B set to roll out in September 2025, Colombia is paving the way for a more connected, efficient, and equitable financial future.
