The initial focus is Colombia, where ACI built the central infrastructure behind Bre-B, the country’s interoperable instant-payments network. The idea is to test how a digital dollar like $USDC can slot into that real-time, account-to-account system to create what the companies call a multi-rail ecosystem.
The framing reflects a shift in how banks are approaching stablecoins. Rather than debating the technology itself, institutions increasingly want to know how digital dollars fit into the treasury operations, governance and settlement processes they already run.
“The conversation around stablecoins is moving from possibility to practicality,” said Craig Ramsey, ACI’s global head of account-to-account payments, describing the effort as a way to integrate regulated stablecoins into workflows banks already trust.
Kash Razzaghi, Circle’s chief commercial officer, said financial institutions across Latin America are increasingly looking at how stablecoins can support the evolution of payments “within the infrastructure they already use,” framing $USDC as a bridge between traditional finance and the digital economy.
The move builds on Circle’s steady regional expansion. The company has pushed into dozens of emerging markets as stablecoins go mainstream, and earlier gained a Latin American foothold when Argentina’s Mercado Pago added $USDC.
Colombia is a logical next target, given high cross-border remittance volumes and a population well-acquainted with dollar-denominated savings as a hedge against inflation.
Circle positioned the pilot as technology-agnostic: while it runs on $USDC, ACI’s platform is built to support other payment networks and digital-asset providers over time. For Circle, the deal is another step in weaving its stablecoin into the plumbing of mainstream finance, this time in a fast-growing payments market where instant-payment adoption is already accelerating.
