Colombia’s Bre-B Reaches 83% Adult Adoption in Year One, Outpacing Pix

Colombia’s instant payment system Bre-B has reached 83% of the country’s adult population in its first year, according to EBANX. For PSPs and merchants, the important part is not the country-comparison trophy: it is that Bre-B is already processing more than 8 million transactions a day and is becoming a checkout rail with real consumer reach.

1. Bre-B launched in October 2025 and now has 36 million active users, including 32 million individuals. EBANX says the system has reached 83% of Colombia’s adult population, while Brazil’s Pix had reached 65% of Brazilian adults after its first year.
2. The system is processing more than 8 million transactions a day, three times its daily volume during its first month. Since launch, Bre-B has processed nearly $80 billion in total value.
3. EBANX, which focuses on emerging markets, said its analysis combines data from the central banks of Colombia and Brazil with population figures from the United Nations and Brazil’s IBGE. Sebastian Fantini, Director of Product at EBANX, said Bre-B succeeded because it “connects payment methods and digital financial solutions that used to work in isolation.”
4. Colombia took a different route from Brazil. Instead of building a completely new payment infrastructure, it connected existing payment systems into a single national network. Interoperability for instant transfers was made mandatory for financial institutions, and EBANX was one of two fintechs invited to Colombia’s Interdisciplinary Committee for Interoperable Payments.
5. The merchant angle is simple. Only 24% of Colombian adults have a credit card, according to the Financial Superintendence of Colombia, versus Bre-B’s 83% penetration. EBANX says moving from a credit-card-only checkout to offering Bre-B more than triples the potential customer base in Colombia, which is exactly the kind of math merchants and their PSPs tend to notice.

EBANX also pointed to early e-commerce results: a global online retail brand enabled Bre-B for 5% of its customers during an initial rollout through EBANX, and in three weeks recorded a 5% incremental revenue increase and $300,000.