The Colombian Fintech Association has approached the monetary authorities in Colombia and Brazil as a first step towards adopting Pix in the Andean country. Pix is the Brazilian Central Bank’s famous instant payment model.
According to Gabriel Santos, the president of the Colombian Fintech Association:
“We have already been in several meetings with the Banco de la República where we established not only that there is going to be a platform, an infrastructure from the Banco de la República, but that it is going to resemble what Pix achieved in Brazil.”
The Central Bank of Brazil launched Pix in 2020, and Brazilians rapidly adopted the system. As of July 31, 2022, more than 478 million passwords were registered on Pix.
Pix is an instant payment system that is free and immediate. This payment method has been a total success in the country due to its simplicity in allowing instant payments, free of charge, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Colombia is looking forward to reducing the use of cash, a goal that Pix achieved in Brazil, and, above all, to replicating Pix’s effect on the financial inclusion of the most vulnerable Brazilians.
“I believe that this is more of an objective for the country than for the industry, the development of an infrastructure from the public sector that allows lower costs and that moves money freely and immediately,” Gabriel Santos stated.
Regarding the dates on which Colombia could develop this system, Santos said that this will depend on the decisions made by the country’s Central Bank:
“It still depends on what will be the rollout of this system and the use cases they intend to somehow take out immediately.”
Also, during a live broadcast, the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stated that the United States, Colombia, and Canada will also import the Brazilian Pix.