Payments & PSPs software in Colombia: market overview
Companies in Colombia building payments & psps platforms increasingly look offshore for engineering. Colombian fintechs and remittance providers need wallet, lending and open-finance integrations as the country rolls out Bre-B instant payments.
Demand is strongest across Fintech, Remittances, Logistics and BPO, and every engagement is shaped by local regulation, payment habits and working hours.
Colombia market snapshot
| Factor | Colombia |
|---|---|
| Region | South America |
| Currency | COP |
| Time zone | COT |
| Business languages | Spanish |
| Data-protection law | Law 1581 of 2012 |
| Key regulators | Superintendencia Financiera (SFC) |
| Popular payment rails | Bre-B instant payments, PSE, Nequi and Daviplata wallets |
| Leading sectors | Fintech, Remittances, Logistics, BPO |
| Cities we serve | 10 |
| Overlap with our team | Morning overlap with Bogotá |
Colombia business profile
Main business hubs
Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla. We work with companies across these hubs remotely, with on-site workshops for larger engagements.
Economy
Services, oil, coffee, BPO and fast-growing fintech. That mix shapes the kind of payments & psps software we are asked to deliver in Colombia.
Talent market
Growing developer pool, especially in Medellín and Bogotá. Many Colombia companies extend their teams with NNT engineers to move faster without long hiring cycles.
Digital infrastructure
Expanding fibre and the Bre-B instant-payment rollout. We design hosting, payments and integrations around this local infrastructure.
Working culture
Warm, relationship-driven business culture in Spanish. Our project managers adapt communication, documentation and meeting cadence accordingly.
Challenges payments & psps companies in Colombia face
- Low approval rates in new markets
- Merchant onboarding bottlenecks
- Reconciliation across many providers
- PCI-DSS scope and audit pressure
How sectors in Colombia use payments & psps software
Payments & PSPs for Fintech in Colombia
Fintech businesses in Colombia building payments & psps platforms usually need secure onboarding, ledgers that reconcile to the cent, real-time payments and audit-ready reporting. We typically start with payment gateway and add merchant portal as the product matures. Progress is tracked on onboarding completion rate and time to approve an application.
Payments & PSPs for Remittances in Colombia
Remittances businesses in Colombia building payments & psps platforms usually need high approval rates, local payment methods, payouts and automated reconciliation. We typically start with orchestration and add settlement engine as the product matures. Progress is tracked on authorisation rate and cost per transaction.
Payments & PSPs for Logistics in Colombia
Logistics businesses in Colombia building payments & psps platforms usually need live shipment visibility, warehouse accuracy, carrier integrations and digital proof of delivery. We typically start with merchant portal and add payment gateway as the product matures. Progress is tracked on on-time delivery rate and cost per drop.
Payments & PSPs for BPO in Colombia
BPO businesses in Colombia building payments & psps platforms usually need fast release cycles, scalable multi-tenant architecture and extra senior engineering capacity. We typically start with settlement engine and add orchestration as the product matures. Progress is tracked on release frequency and customer churn.
Example: payments & psps software for a bpo business in Santa Marta
Consider a bpo company in Santa Marta (port and tourism). A typical payments & psps software engagement would start with payment gateway, then orchestration, and finish the first release with merchant portal — usually within 8–16 weeks.
Payments would run through Nequi and Daviplata wallets, data would be handled under Law 1581 of 2012, and success would be measured on release frequency, customer churn and time to onboard a customer.
What we build for payments & psps companies in Colombia
Payment gateway
Hosted checkout, APIs and tokenisation.
Orchestration
Smart routing and failover across PSPs.
Merchant portal
KYB onboarding, dashboards and payouts.
Settlement engine
Fees, splits, reserves and reconciliation.
Regulators relevant to payments & psps software in Colombia
Because payments & psps software often touches regulated money flows or sensitive personal data, these authorities matter. We design controls with their expectations in mind; licensing remains with your regulated entity.
Superintendencia Financiera (SFC)
Colombia's Financial Superintendency, which supervises banks, payment companies and runs a fintech sandbox. For payments & psps software, payment licensing, safeguarding of client funds and operational resilience are the usual focus.
Payment rails we integrate for payments & psps platforms in Colombia
Bre-B instant payments
Colombia's new interoperable instant-payment system led by the central bank — integrated for pay-ins, payouts and automated reconciliation.
PSE
Colombia's online bank-debit payment button used by e-commerce sites — integrated for pay-ins, payouts and automated reconciliation.
Nequi and Daviplata wallets
Colombia's two leading mobile wallets for everyday payments — integrated for pay-ins, payouts and automated reconciliation.
Law 1581 of 2012: compliance checklist for payments & psps software
Before launch in Colombia, we work through this checklist with your team and advisers:
- Map every personal-data field to a lawful purpose under Law 1581 of 2012.
- Decide where data is hosted and whether data about Colombia customers must stay in-region.
- Implement consent records plus data-subject access and deletion workflows.
- Encrypt data in transit and at rest; restrict and log administrative access.
- Prepare a breach-notification procedure that meets the timelines that apply in Colombia.
- Confirm with counsel whether licensing or registration with Superintendencia Financiera (SFC) applies to your model.
- Document AML, fraud and transaction-monitoring controls for auditors.
Hosting and data residency for payments & psps software in Colombia
For clients in Colombia we usually host on AWS São Paulo, Azure Brazil South or Google Cloud Santiago. The choice balances latency for local users, Law 1581 of 2012 requirements on where personal data may be stored or transferred, and any sector rules your regulator sets. Backups and disaster-recovery copies follow the same residency decision.
Localising payments & psps software for Colombia
Business in Colombia is mainly conducted in Spanish. We build interfaces, notifications and documents ready for those languages, format dates, numbers and COP amounts the local way, and plan releases around the COT working day.
Questions to answer before starting payments & psps software in Colombia
- Which customer segments in Colombia come first — Fintech, Remittances and Logistics?
- Do we need Spanish from launch, or one language first?
- Which of Bre-B instant payments, PSE and Nequi and Daviplata wallets must be live on day one?
- Does any activity need approval or registration with Superintendencia Financiera (SFC)?
- Where must data be hosted under Law 1581 of 2012?
- Which cities do we pilot in — Bogotá, Medellín and Cali?
Payments & PSPs by city in Colombia
Payments & PSPs in Bogotá
The capital and main fintech hub. Typical starting point: orchestration.
Payments & PSPs in Medellín
An innovation district with fast-growing startups. Typical starting point: merchant portal.
Payments & PSPs in Cali
Consumer goods, BPO and logistics firms. Typical starting point: settlement engine.
Payments & PSPs in Barranquilla
Port logistics and Caribbean trade. Typical starting point: payment gateway.
Payments & PSPs in Cartagena
Tourism, port and petrochemical industries. Typical starting point: orchestration.
Payments & PSPs in Bucaramanga
Tech services and commerce. Typical starting point: merchant portal.
Payments & PSPs in Pereira
BPO and logistics. Typical starting point: settlement engine.
Payments & PSPs in Manizales
Universities and software firms. Typical starting point: payment gateway.
Payments & PSPs in Santa Marta
Port and tourism. Typical starting point: orchestration.
Payments & PSPs in Cúcuta
Cross-border trade. Typical starting point: merchant portal.
Typical integrations for payments & psps platforms in Colombia
- Acquirers — connected through secure, monitored APIs
- Card schemes — connected through secure, monitored APIs
- Fraud engines — connected through secure, monitored APIs
- Accounting systems — connected through secure, monitored APIs
Working across time zones with Colombia
We work with morning overlap with Bogotá (COT). Pricing is agreed in COP or USD as per your requirements and budget, with weekly demos and written status reports.
Next steps
Ready to discuss payments & psps software in Colombia? Here is how to get started with NNT Software:
- Share your goals, users, must-have features and timeline through the contact form, email or WhatsApp.
- Join a free 30-minute discovery call with a solution architect — we sign an NDA first if you prefer.
- Receive a written proposal within 48 hours: scope, milestones, team, timeline and fixed estimate.
- Kick off with a discovery workshop and see working software in your first sprint demo.