Circle and ACI Plan Colombia Pilot to Evaluate USDC Settlement

Circle Internet Group and ACI Worldwide plan a Colombia pilot to help financial institutions evaluate USDC settlement alongside existing payment operations. The companies announced the initiative Oct. 27, pairing Circle’s USDC infrastructure with ACI Connetic, ACI’s cloud-native payments orchestration platform.

The pilot is designed to let institutions assess how stablecoin settlement could fit into payment rails, treasury operations, governance frameworks and settlement processes they already use. The companies have not announced a live service for customers.

Colombia is the initiative’s initial focus because ACI built central infrastructure powering Bre-B, the country’s interoperable instant-payment system. Bre-B was developed and is led by Banco de la República, Colombia’s central bank. The companies did not describe a direct technical link between USDC and Bre-B or say customers can transfer USDC through the network.

Bre-B entered full operation Oct. 6, 2025. Through Jan. 31, 2026, its operational settlement mechanism had processed more than 370 million transactions totaling more than 59 trillion Colombian pesos. The companies provided no transaction target for the pilot.

“The conversation around stablecoins is moving from possibility to practicality,” said Craig Ramsey, ACI Worldwide’s global head of account-to-account payments.

The companies did not name participating banks or provide a rollout date, transaction limits or details on conversion, fees or compliance. The announcement describes an evaluation of settlement within existing financial operations, without setting a public launch date or customer-access plan.