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How to Process Local Payouts to Colombia (COP) via Local Bank Transfer Using Stablecoins

Cross-Border Payments
Local bank transfer payouts to Colombia in COP funded by USDC, with Colombia imports, remittances and TRM stats

Your supplier in Medellín sent a peso invoice on Monday. Your international wire left on Tuesday, and on Friday it still has not arrived in full.

Local bank transfer payouts to Colombia with stablecoin settlement remove that wait. You fund in USDC or USD, lock a quote, and your recipient gets Colombian pesos (COP) in their own bank account.

The demand is real. Colombia imported US$70.5 billion in goods in 2025, up 10%, according to DANE. The country also received a record US$13.1 billion in remittances in 2025, per Migración Colombia and Banco de la República data.

This guide covers why Colombia payouts break, how the stablecoin-funded flow works, and which recipient details you need. It then walks through your first COP payout by dashboard and by API.

Why Paying Out in Colombia Is Harder Than It Should Be

Colombia has deep domestic banking rails. The friction sits at the border, where your foreign payment meets a moving peso and a receiving bank that wants paperwork.

The peso moves fast. The official rate (TRM) was COP 3,273.49 per dollar on October 3, 2026. That is 12.87% lower than at the start of the year. A dollar invoice paid today buys your supplier far fewer pesos than it did in January.

Inbound wires need action from your recipient. Bancolombia tells people receiving money from abroad to accept the transfer and its exchange rate within 30 days, unless they set up automatic credit. It also warns that other banks may add charges along the way.

Small cross-border transfers are expensive. Sending small amounts abroad costs an average of 6.36% of the amount sent, according to the World Bank. On a US$40,000 monthly supplier run, that average would cost you US$2,544 every month. We break down more of these costs in the hidden costs of international payments.

The details have to be exact. Each Colombian bank uses its own account number format and length. A wrong digit or the wrong account type is the fastest route to a rejected payout.

Local Bank Transfer Payouts to Colombia with a Stablecoin Layer: How It Works

Yativo is payment infrastructure, not a bank. We use stablecoins as the settlement layer between your balance and Colombia. A licensed local payout partner then delivers the pesos on the ground.

  1. You fund your Yativo float balance with a fiat or stablecoin deposit, such as USDC.
  2. Yativo converts the payout value to USDC and settles it on-chain.
  3. A licensed local payout partner in Colombia receives the stablecoin settlement.
  4. The partner converts USDC to COP and sends a domestic bank transfer to the recipient’s account.
  5. Your recipient receives pesos in their normal bank account.

Your recipient does not need a crypto wallet. They never see or touch stablecoins. On their side, the payment looks like any domestic transfer from a local sender.

Stablecoins are already part of Colombian finance. Chainalysis puts Colombia’s crypto transaction volume at US$44.2 billion for July 2024 to June 2025. Stablecoins made up over half of all exchange purchases made with Colombian pesos in that period. For more on the settlement layer, read how to receive international payments in stablecoins.

Supported Payout Rails for Colombia

Yativo’s active COP payout methods are Bank Transfer and Bre-B. This guide covers Bank Transfer, which pays pesos into a savings or checking account at a Colombian bank.

Bank Transfer (COP)

Interbank transfers in Colombia run through the ACH network. Bancolombia, for example, credits transfers to other banks in five cycles on business days, between 7:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Transfers made after the last cycle, or on non-business days, land the next business day.

Required details: the bank, the account type and the account number. These are the three fields in the Colombia payout form, gateway ID 2.

Settlement time: your quote shows the delivery time before you confirm the payout.

Best for: suppliers, agencies, companies and payroll recipients with a Colombian bank account.

Bre-B (COP)

Bre-B is Colombia’s instant payment system, run by Banco de la República. It moves money between banks in seconds, at any hour, any day of the week. Yativo pays out over Bre-B through gateway IDs 1277 and 1278, and our Bre-B payouts guide covers it in detail.

SWIFT options

Our Colombia methods list also includes SWIFT, gateway ID 564, which pays USD. SWIFT (POBO), gateway ID 1133, pays COP and needs the Collection/Payment-on-behalf-of endorsement on your customer. Availability depends on your account, so check the live list before you build.

Recipient Details to Collect Before Your First COP Payout

The Colombia payout form in our API is the authoritative field list. Collect the details below during onboarding so you can fill it without a round of emails.

  • Bank: chosen from the bank list the form returns, for example Bancolombia (code 007).
  • Account type: savings or checking. The bank list in our documentation codes savings as 2 and checking as 1.
  • Account number: the full number, copied from a bank statement or the bank’s app. Maximum lengths differ by bank, from 8 to 18 digits.
  • Account currency: confirm the account holds Colombian pesos.
  • Legal name and ID: the holder’s full name plus cédula or NIT, kept with your beneficiary record.
  • Invoice or payment reference: so both sides can reconcile the payout.

Keep the name and ID on file even though the payout form asks for bank details only. Colombian banks expect the holder’s name, ID type and ID number when someone sends an interbank transfer, as DAVIbank explains.

How to Send a COP Payout via Yativo

Option 1: Dashboard (for manual payouts)

  1. Fund your Yativo float balance with either a fiat or a stablecoin deposit.
  2. Go to Transfer in your Yativo dashboard.
  3. Select the float wallet you are paying with, for example USD, EUR, MXN or whichever balance you funded.
  4. Choose the customer you are paying on behalf of. This step is necessary for fintechs that run payouts on behalf of their customers.
  5. Choose Colombia as the destination country and the Bank Transfer payout method.
  6. Enter the recipient details: the bank, the account type (savings or checking) and the account number.
  7. Enter the amount in USD or COP.
  8. Review the quote: exchange rate, fees, delivery time and the exact COP amount your recipient receives.
  9. Confirm with your PIN and 2FA.
  10. Track the payout in real time and download the receipt for your records.

Option 2: API (for automated and bulk payouts)

Every endpoint below is in the Yativo API documentation. Production calls go to https://api.yativo.com/api/v1, and the sandbox runs at https://smtp.yativo.com/api/v1.

Authenticate every request with the X-Api-Key and X-Api-Secret headers. Each key only works from the server IPs listed on it. These API keys replaced bearer tokens, and login tokens stop working from servers on October 15, 2026, as covered in our October update. Every POST request also needs a unique Idempotency-Key header.

Step 1. Generate a USDC funding address on Solana to top up your USD balance:

POST https://api.yativo.com/api/v1/crypto/create-wallet
X-Api-Key: $YATIVO_API_KEY
X-Api-Secret: $YATIVO_API_SECRET
Idempotency-Key: 7c1e2a9b-3d4f-4b6a-8c2d-9e0f1a2b3c4d
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "currency": "USDC_SOL"
}

Step 2. List the payout methods available for Colombia:

curl "https://api.yativo.com/api/v1/payment-methods/payout?country=COL" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $YATIVO_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Api-Secret: $YATIVO_API_SECRET" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

Bank Transfer (COP) is active and carries gateway ID 2. Always read the ID from the live response instead of hardcoding it.

Step 3. Fetch the required fields for that gateway:

GET https://api.yativo.com/api/v1/beneficiary/form/show/2
X-Api-Key: $YATIVO_API_KEY
X-Api-Secret: $YATIVO_API_SECRET

The response lists three fields: bankAccount, AccountType and bankCode. It also returns the bank list, with each bank’s code and account types.

Step 4. Create the beneficiary. This example pays a company’s Bancolombia savings account:

POST https://api.yativo.com/api/v1/beneficiaries/payment-methods/
X-Api-Key: $YATIVO_API_KEY
X-Api-Secret: $YATIVO_API_SECRET
Idempotency-Key: 2a9c8b7d-6e5f-4a3b-9c1d-2e3f4a5b6c7d
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "gateway_id": 2,
  "nickname": "Textiles del Valle SAS",
  "currency": "COP",
  "customer_id": "e8caa491-57b6-4c39-9e3a-d2c97e47fbf0",
  "payment_data": {
    "bankAccount": "04512345678",
    "AccountType": "2",
    "bankCode": "007"
  }
}

Step 5. Optionally, lock your rate. Quotes hold for 5 minutes:

POST https://api.yativo.com/api/v1/exchange-rate
X-Api-Key: $YATIVO_API_KEY
X-Api-Secret: $YATIVO_API_SECRET
Idempotency-Key: 5e4d3c2b-1a0f-4e9d-8c7b-6a5f4e3d2c1b
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "from_currency": "USD",
  "to_currency": "COP",
  "method_id": 2,
  "method_type": "payout",
  "amount": 4000
}

Step 6. Initiate the payout from your USD balance:

POST https://api.yativo.com/api/v1/wallet/payout
X-Api-Key: $YATIVO_API_KEY
X-Api-Secret: $YATIVO_API_SECRET
Idempotency-Key: 9f8e7d6c-5b4a-4c3d-9e2f-1a0b9c8d7e6f
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "debit_wallet": "USD",
  "amount": 4000,
  "payment_method_id": 4831,
  "customer_id": "e8caa491-57b6-4c39-9e3a-d2c97e47fbf0",
  "quote_id": "4a72ecf8-6c8a-4e38-9971-8aabe9f785ed"
}

Use the id from the beneficiary response as payment_method_id. Leave out quote_id if you did not lock a rate. For bulk runs, repeat the call per beneficiary, as described on our payouts page.

Which Colombia Payout Option Should You Use?

 Bank transfer (COP)Bre-B (COP)USD via SWIFT
Settlement speedShown in your quoteShown in your quoteDepends on correspondent banks
Required detailsBank, account type, account numberBre-B key (see API documentation)See API documentation
Best forCompanies, suppliers, payrollIndividuals, contractorsRecipients who want USD
AvailabilityActiveActiveActive
Currency receivedCOPCOPUSD

Best Practices for Colombia Payouts

Check the account number against the bank list. Each bank in the form has its own maximum length, for example 11 digits at Bancolombia. Validating length up front catches typos before the payout fails.

Lock the rate on large payouts. The peso has moved almost 13% against the dollar this year. Exchange-rate quotes hold for 5 minutes, so lock one for payroll runs and large invoices.

Pick the rail by recipient. Use bank transfer for companies and large amounts. Bre-B suits individuals, since each Bre-B payment is capped at COP 12,110,000 in 2026.

Stop hardcoding retired gateway IDs. The ACH (1353), TransfiYa (1354) and BreB (COL) (1355) methods were sunset on September 2, 2026. Read gateway IDs from the payout methods endpoint at runtime instead.

Save each beneficiary once. Reusable payment methods remove re-entry errors. Recurring payouts then become a single API call.

Run one playbook across LATAM. The same flow works in other markets. See our guide to local payouts to Argentina via bank transfer and our breakdown of LATAM payout rails.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my recipient in Colombia need a crypto wallet?

No. Your recipient gets Colombian pesos in their normal bank account. They never interact with stablecoins, and the payment arrives as a domestic transfer.

Is it legal and compliant to pay Colombian recipients this way?

Yes, when the payout runs through regulated infrastructure. Yativo is registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business, registration number 31000270723339. A licensed local payout partner makes the domestic transfer, so your recipient sees a normal local payment. Your own tax and reporting duties still apply, so confirm them with your compliance advisor.

How long does a COP bank transfer payout take?

Your Yativo quote shows the delivery time before you confirm, so you know it before you send. On the Colombian side, interbank ACH transfers clear in five cycles on business days, according to Bancolombia.

Which Colombian banks can I pay?

The Colombia payout form returns the full bank list with a code for each bank. It includes Bancolombia, Davivienda, Banco de Bogotá, Banco de Occidente, Scotiabank Colpatria and many more.

Can I pay a recipient with their Bre-B key instead of an account number?

Yes, through a separate method. Yativo also pays out in COP over Bre-B, Colombia’s instant payment system, using gateway IDs 1277 and 1278. Our Bre-B payouts guide explains when to use it.

Can my recipient receive US dollars instead of pesos?

Not through this rail, which delivers COP. For dollars, use SWIFT, which pays USD. Check GET /payment-methods/payout?country=COL for the methods enabled on your account, or ask your account executive.

Start Paying Out in Colombia in Pesos

Colombia bought US$70.5 billion in goods from abroad in 2025, and every one of those suppliers wants to be paid on time. Yativo lets you fund in USDC or USD and deliver COP to Colombian bank accounts through a licensed local payout partner. Your recipients get a domestic transfer, and you get one API for every payout. Book a demo to set up your first Colombia payout.

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