Circle wants USDC inside Latin America’s banks, not outside them. The stablecoin issuer is partnering with payments-technology firm ACI Worldwide to bring USDC settlement onto the region’s existing banking rails. The first stop is a pilot in Colombia.
The collaboration was announced on Tuesday, October 27, 2026. The pitch is cooperation, not disruption: stablecoin settlement running next to traditional payment systems instead of trying to replace them.
How the Colombia pilot works
The setup pairs Circle’s USDC infrastructure with ACI Connetic, ACI’s cloud-based payments orchestration platform. ACI Connetic is built to handle traditional and digital payments on one platform. Adding USDC to that mix means a bank could, in theory, route some transactions through a stablecoin without rebuilding its back office from scratch.
The Colombia pilot will draw on Bre-B. That is the country’s interoperable instant-payment system, run by Colombia’s central bank, Banco de la República. Interoperable means a customer at one bank can pay a customer at another bank instantly, using shared infrastructure rather than a patchwork of private links.
Bre-B has scaled quickly. It recorded over 500 million transactions in its first five months of operation, as of March 2026. It also passed more than 100 million registered payment keys during that same stretch.
According to the research summary, the goal is a multi-rail ecosystem. Institutions could test compliance and operational models inside frameworks they already know, while folding digital assets into daily operations.
What the executives are saying
Kash Razzaghi of Circle emphasized connecting the digital economy with traditional financial infrastructure. Craig Ramsey of ACI noted a shift toward practical applications of stablecoins.
The partnership is described as a response to growing interest from financial institutions across Latin America.
Circle’s broader Latin America push
Colombia is not Circle’s first move in the region. The company had already secured a USDC foothold in Latin America through Mercado Pago, the fintech arm tied to one of the region’s best-known e-commerce ecosystems. The ACI deal also follows earlier stablecoin payout expansions in the region.
Both companies are publicly traded. Circle trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL, while ACI Worldwide trades as ACIW.
What this means for banks, Circle and stablecoins
The most important word in this announcement may be “alongside.” A pilot that slots USDC into an existing orchestration layer lowers the barrier for banks cautious about technology that asks them to rip out working systems.
The choice of Colombia is telling. A central bank-run system that logged over 500 million transactions in five months shows strong appetite for fast digital payments.
This is a pilot, so the key milestones are whether participating banks move beyond testing and whether regulators in Colombia stay comfortable as stablecoin settlement touches a central bank-run network. The announcement frames Colombia as the starting point for Latin America more broadly.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.