Colombia Drafts Digital-Asset Bill With Tokenized Securities Rules

Mariana Aya Guerrero, acting director of Colombia's Unidad de Regulación Financiera (URF), said the agency is drafting a digital-asset bill with Ministerio de Hacienda, Banco de la República and other state authorities. The proposal would define which digital-asset activities require authorization, set operating conditions, assign regulatory responsibilities and establish penalties.

The proposal remains under development; any approval would depend on the legislative process.

The bill's tokenized-securities provisions would adjust how ownership is registered and how orders are handled, cleared and settled. Tokenization could allow those functions to be combined on one platform and automated with smart contracts.

Separately, distributed ledger technology (DLT) for securities trading could enable round-the-clock trading. DLT infrastructure could also support faster settlement.