Central Bank of Colombia releases 2025 electronic payments survey showing intra-bank transfers dominate while interoperable instant transfers reach 32.9% of adults

The Central Bank of Colombia published the first edition of its 2025 Electronic Payment Services Survey, providing a diagnostic of usage, acceptance and perceptions of electronic payments and identifying adoption gaps and access barriers ahead of the launch of the interoperable instant payments system Bre-B. The results point to strong uptake of electronic transfers, particularly intra-bank transfers, while interoperable instant payments show lower current use but substantial growth potential driven by demand for immediacy. Intra-bank transfers were the most widely used instrument, used by 69.7% of adults (41.5% of users doing so more than three times per week) and received by 84.9% of micro and small merchants. Interoperable instant transfers were used by 32.9% of individuals (15.5% of users doing so more than three times per week) and accepted by 54.6% of merchants, while 29.4% of merchants accepted interoperable QR payments. Two-thirds of adults reported positive views on ease of use and financial inclusion potential, but key concerns centred on data privacy, costs (including the 4x1000) and trust, with concerns more pronounced among lower-education groups, older people and lower socioeconomic strata; among merchants, negative perceptions were more common in informal, lower-income and smaller-city businesses, and around half reported doubts about correct functioning of the service and the ease of implementing interoperable QR codes.