Circle and ACI Worldwide plan USDC stablecoin settlement pilot in Colombia
In brief
- ACI Worldwide and Circle announced a stablecoin settlement collaboration on Oct. 27, 2026.
- ACI's Connetic platform pairs with Circle's USDC infrastructure in a pilot starting in Colombia.
- Participating banks, production volumes and a broad rollout timetable were not named.
- The release included no measured time or cost comparisons against existing rails.
What the pilot is testing
The announcement describes Connetic as a cloud-native platform combining traditional payment types, digital assets and card payments. The companies said they'd use it to demonstrate stablecoin settlement alongside traditional payment rails (Connetic provides the orchestration environment, while Circle's USDC infrastructure is the stablecoin component under evaluation).
So what are institutions actually supposed to measure? According to the announcement, they'd assess how digital dollars fit their treasury operations, governance frameworks and settlement processes.
“Financial institutions want to understand how digital asset settlement can fit into the infrastructure and operating models they already trust,” said Craig Ramsey, ACI’s global head of account-to-account payments.
Ramsey made the comment as part of the announcement, as reported by CryptoSlate.
What wasn't disclosed
It's a demonstration, not a rollout.
The release names no participating Colombian financial institutions, and it gives no production transaction volumes or broad rollout timetable. It also doesn't include measured time and cost comparisons. CryptoSlate characterized the Oct. 27 announcement as an integration demonstration that doesn't establish production scale.
No banks, no volumes, no timeline.
How Circle describes USDC
Circle describes USDC as a fully reserved stablecoin that's redeemable one-for-one for US dollars. According to the company's product page, Circle Mint lets eligible institutions redeem USDC directly for dollars; individuals and small businesses can't use the service directly. The announcement doesn't specify what USDC access arrangements the pilot will use.
Circle markets USDC payments as low cost and capable of settling in seconds. Neither the announcement nor the USDC page offered a Colombia-specific comparison of settlement speed or cost, so for now those remain Circle's own claims about its product, not results from this pilot.
Frequently asked questions
What is ACI's Connetic platform and what role does it play in the USDC pilot?
The announcement describes Connetic as a cloud-native platform combining traditional payment types, digital assets and card payments. In the pilot, Connetic provides the orchestration environment, while Circle's USDC infrastructure provides the stablecoin component being evaluated.
Which Colombian banks are taking part in the ACI and Circle pilot?
None were named. The release identified no participating Colombian financial institutions and gave no production transaction volumes, broad rollout timetable or measured time and cost comparisons.
