---

Bogotá, Colombia. Colombia's central bank approved a four-year strategic plan in November 2025 that places wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) experimentation and digital asset oversight at the centre of its policy agenda through 2029. The plan, published publicly on January 13, 2026, restructures the bank's priorities into eight strategic themes and positions Banco de la República as a co-drafter of Colombia's first comprehensive digital assets law, as part of a broader regulatory buildout.

The shift is notable. Roughly ten months before the plan's approval, the bank had concluded in a formal report that there were "not sufficient reasons" to issue any form of CBDC in Colombia.

---

From Observer to Regulator

The bank's new plan states its intent "to promote and lead the development of regulation and monitoring of the digital asset market within the scope of the Bank's competencies." That mandate covers stablecoins in particular, given what government bill documentation describes as their "potential impact on monetary sovereignty and exchange rate regulation." Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to a reference asset such as the US dollar; Chainalysis data from 2025 shows they already account for more than 50 percent of exchange purchases made in Colombian pesos, reflecting high local demand for dollar-denominated digital instruments.

Colombia processed roughly USD 44.2 billion in crypto transactions between July 2022 and June 2025, ranking fourth in Latin America by volume behind Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.

Monetary Sub-Manager Andrés Murcia framed the broader regulatory direction in terms of pragmatism: "The state vision evolved from a prohibitive stance toward an approach that recognizes underlying innovation."

---

The Wholesale CBDC Reversal

The most closely watched item in the plan for crypto and financial technology audiences is the commitment to experiment with wholesale CBDC as part of strengthening cross-border payment infrastructure. Wholesale CBDCs are digital central bank currencies used exclusively for settlement between financial institutions, not for everyday consumer transactions. The bank tried a narrow version of this concept in 2023, running a closed pilot together with the Ministry of ICT, Ripple, and Peersyst on the XRP Ledger to test blockchain-based wholesale settlement use cases.

That project ended without a production commitment and was followed by the January 2025 report that cited mixed international results. The 2026 to 2029 plan's re-engagement with the topic appears driven partly by developments among regional peers (Brazil's Drex project and Peru's retail CBDC pilot have kept the conversation active across South America) and by the G20's cross-border payments agenda, which has elevated multilateral digital currency coordination as a shared priority.

The plan does not include any retail CBDC objective, meaning a consumer-facing digital peso is not on the table for this cycle.

---

Bre-B as the Foundation

Most of the payments agenda in the new plan builds on Bre-B, Colombia's instant payments system launched in full operation on October 6, 2025. Modelled on Brazil's Pix, Bre-B is operated by Banco de la República as the interoperability layer connecting 227 financial institutions through five competing payment networks.

As of early 2026, the system had processed approximately 607 million transactions valued at around USD 25 billion, with 35 million registered users and 103 million registered aliases. The average transaction is roughly USD 43.

The plan sets targets to expand Bre-B into government disbursement payments, recurring billing, bulk payroll transfers, and cross-border interoperability with neighbouring countries. The bank also commits to leading the adoption of ISO 20022 across Colombia's financial market infrastructure. ISO 20022 is the global financial messaging standard covering payments, securities settlement, and related transactions; November 2025 marked the conclusion of the SWIFT MT/MX message coexistence period, making it the sole required format for financial messaging across participating institutions worldwide.

---

Compliance Deadline Already in Motion

The regulatory transition is not waiting for the plan's multi-year timeline to play out. Colombia's national tax authority DIAN introduced Resolution 000240 of 2025, requiring Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to report detailed user and transaction data to the government starting May 2026. VASPs are businesses that provide crypto custody, exchange, or transfer services. That deadline has effectively ended the informal operating environment that crypto businesses in Colombia have relied on since the asset class emerged, with direct implications for an estimated 5 million Colombian crypto users. The Financial Superintendence, which oversees banks and brokers, still prohibits supervised institutions from holding or facilitating crypto directly, meaning the regulatory framework remains fragmented until the Digital Assets Law advances through the legislative process.

---

Stakes for the Region

The financial inclusion context adds weight to the payments side of the plan. According to 2020 World Bank data, roughly 23 percent of Colombian adults lacked bank accounts. Separate figures show that 77.8 percent of everyday transactions still occur in cash, and Colombia holds the largest gender gap in financial inclusion in South America at 13 percentage points.

The Bre-B expansion and digital asset framework are both framed in the plan as tools to reduce those gaps. For fintech developers, payments builders, and VASP operators across Latin America, Colombia is positioning itself as a test case for how a mid-size emerging market integrates instant payments, institutional digital asset oversight, and cautious CBDC experimentation in a single policy cycle.

The Digital Assets Law is currently in co-drafting between the government and Banco de la República. No legislative timeline has been confirmed publicly.