Five changes Bre-B has driven in Colombia after its first year live

Colombia’s Banco de la República instant payments system, Bre-B, has now been operating for a year, and the adoption numbers are doing most of the talking: more than 36 million people have at least one registered key, and the system has surpassed 116 million keys in total. For PSPs and merchants, the more interesting part is what this has changed in practice: interoperability, cash usage, and how businesses collect money.

1. Interoperability is no longer a promise, it is the default mechanics of the system. Before Bre-B, sending money from one bank to another could mean entering full account details, waiting for processing, and sometimes paying extra or working around banking hours. With Bre-B, users can send and receive money instantly across different financial institutions, banks, and fintechs, regardless of where the other person holds their account. The key is the llave, an identifier linked to the account that lets people receive payments without sharing full banking data.
2. Cash still matters in Colombia, but its share has fallen. According to Banco de la República figures cited in the source, preference for cash dropped from 91% in 2012 to 66% in 2026. Put differently, where eight out of ten transactions used to be cash, the number is now six out of ten. For high-risk merchants, the operational point is simple: digital payments are gaining more room to grow, and with them comes a clearer transaction trail.
3. More merchants are using Bre-B to get paid. The source says 37% of operations in the system are made through QR codes, which is a pretty direct signal that Bre-B is being used at the point of sale rather than just for person-to-person transfers. Between June and August 2026, businesses activated 74,935 new keys, up 77% versus the end of May. During that same period, sales made through this channel exceeded $3.2 billion.
4. Bre-B is also changing the economics of receiving payments for businesses. The article frames it as an alternative for merchants that want faster collection from customers, with the infrastructure built around keys and QR making payment initiation less dependent on bank-specific rails. For PSPs, that usually means the interesting part is not the transfer itself, but the ability to plug into a system where the customer can pay without having to think about the receiving institution.
5. The system is expanding from a consumer convenience tool into payment infrastructure with real volume behind it. More than 36 million people already have at least one registered key, and the platform now exceeds 116 million keys overall. That matters because once a payment method reaches this level of identifier coverage, the conversation shifts from launch novelty to distribution, merchant acceptance, and whether the scheme becomes a standard rail for everyday collections.