Circle is testing its USDC stablecoin for payment settlement in Colombia, in a pilot with payments technology firm ACI Worldwide announced on Tuesday.
The pilot pairs Circle’s USDC infrastructure with ACI Connetic, ACI’s cloud-based platform for managing payments. The aim is to show banks and other financial institutions how stablecoin settlement can run alongside existing payment systems rather than replace them.
Why Colombia
ACI built the central infrastructure behind Bre-B, Colombia’s instant payments network, which lets people and businesses move money directly between accounts in real time.
The companies want to test how USDC can fit into that system, alongside traditional payment rails.
Colombia receives large volumes of money sent from abroad, and many people there already hold savings in dollars as a hedge against inflation.
What the companies say
“The conversation around stablecoins is moving from possibility to practicality,” said Craig Ramsey, ACI’s global head of account-to-account payments.
Kash Razzaghi, Circle’s chief commercial officer, said Latin American institutions want stablecoins to support payments “within the infrastructure they already use.”
Circle says ACI’s platform could support other payment networks and digital asset providers over time.
Part of a wider push
The pilot follows Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire’s comments earlier this month that the company is preparing to expand into around 40 emerging and developing markets. Circle’s earlier foothold in Latin America came when Argentina’s Mercado Pago added USDC.
What happens next
The companies had not named any participating banks, a timeline or transaction volumes for the pilot at the time of writing. Those details will show whether it moves beyond a test.
