Central Bank of Colombia partners ACI Worldwide for real-time payments system
The Central Bank of Colombia, Banco de la República, has selected global payments software firm ACI Worldwide to power its new domestic real-time payments system.
Central Bank of Colombia partners ACI Worldwide
By tapping ACI’s Enterprise Payments Platform for its Digital Central Infrastructure offering, the central bank says it plans to create a real-time payments ecosystem that includes centralised settlement and all existing real-time payment schemes.
Set for launch in 2025, the system will serve as the base layer for all current and future real-time payment schemes.
Leonardo Villar, governor of the Central Bank of Colombia, claims the action is the first initiative of its kind in Latin America to be built “by all stakeholders in the payments ecosystem”.
“Government, regulators, private banks and the central bank have all been working together with the aim to bring the benefits of real-time payments modernisation to Colombian consumers and businesses,” he comments.
Villar says its partnership with ACI Worldwide has placed the central bank “in a strong position” to realise a real-time and digital-first payments ecosystem.
The software firm has previously had a hand in helping the likes of Kiwibank in New Zealand, Security Bank Corporation in the Philippines and the Cámara de Compensación Electrónica (CCE) clearing house in Peru achieve real-time payment capabilities.
In total, it currently powers 25 similar domestic and pay-regional real-time payments schemes around the world, including nine central infrastructures.
ACI Worldwide claimed through its Prime Time for Real-Time report last year that adopters can expect additional annual GDP growth of up to 2%, while its report for this year indicates that transactions in Colombia that are driven by real-time payments will jump from the 15 million recorded last year to 92 million by 2027, a five-year CAGR of 43.4%.
In light of liquidity improvements and market efficiencies posed by real-time payments, Tom Warsop, president and CEO of ACI Worldwide, says Colombia now has “an incredible opportunity to drive economic growth and financial inclusion” when its new system goes live.
