ACI Worldwide and Circle Plan Colombian Pilot to Bring USDC Settlement Into Existing Bank Payment Systems

The collaboration runs through ACI Connetic, ACI's cloud payments orchestration platform, and starts in Colombia, where ACI built the central infrastructure behind the Bre-B instant payments system. No participating banks, timeline or volumes were named.

ACI Worldwide and Circle Plan Colombian Pilot to Bring USDC Settlement Into Existing Bank Payment Systems — editorial cover artwork
ACI Worldwide and Circle Plan Colombian Pilot to Bring USDC Settlement Into Existing Bank Payment Systems — editorial cover artwork

By Daniel Osei, Journalist, Payments and Cards

ACI Worldwide and Circle Internet Group have announced a collaboration to show how banks can add USDC settlement to the payment systems they already run, starting with a pilot in Colombia. The companies announced it on 27 October 2026.

The initiative uses ACI Connetic, ACI's cloud-native payments orchestration platform, together with Circle's USDC infrastructure. ACI built the central infrastructure that powers Bre-B, Colombia's interoperable instant payments ecosystem, and the companies say the work will explore how stablecoins could complement that infrastructure in a "multi-rail" model.

This is a pilot-stage collaboration. The release names no participating banks, start date, corridors, volumes or regulatory approvals.

Orchestration, not a new network

The pitch is integration rather than replacement. ACI Connetic already brings traditional account-to-account payments, card payments and digital assets onto one platform. Adding USDC settlement there means a bank could, in principle, route some flows through a stablecoin while keeping its existing treasury, governance and settlement processes. The release says the aim is to let institutions "evaluate new settlement models within familiar operating environments."

The release describes Bre-B as the foundation for real-time account-to-account payments in Colombia. It does not say USDC will move over Bre-B itself, nor how a USDC leg would interact with peso-denominated instant payments, so those mechanics are not established.

The platform is not exclusive to Circle. According to the release, ACI Connetic "supports an evolving ecosystem of payment networks, digital asset providers and future settlement models", which leaves room for other stablecoins or settlement assets later.

"The conversation around stablecoins is moving from possibility to practicality," said Craig Ramsey, global head of account-to-account payments at ACI Worldwide. Kash Razzaghi, chief commercial officer at Circle, said financial institutions across Latin America "are increasingly looking at how stablecoins can support the evolution of payments and settlement within the infrastructure they already use."

Why the vendor route matters

For Circle, payments software vendors are a distribution channel into banks that may never build their own stablecoin stack. ACI sells real-time payments orchestration software to banks, billers and merchants, and its role in building Bre-B's core gives the Colombian pilot a direct link to a national instant payments system.

The open questions are commercial and regulatory. The release does not address how Colombian banks would hold or convert USDC, who provides on- and off-ramps in pesos, or how the activity would be supervised locally. Those answers, and the names of any banks that join, will show whether the pilot moves beyond a demonstration.

Sources

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