The Better Than Cash Alliance case study Bre-B: A Digital Public Infrastructure to Strengthen Financial Inclusion and Competitiveness in Colombia explores how Colombia’s central bank built Bre-B, an instant payment system that makes digital payments faster, cheaper and available to everyone. Although most Colombian adults have a financial account, cash still dominates everyday transactions. Bre-B connects all payment systems so people and small businesses can pay each other within seconds, at any hour. In its first 15 days, it recorded more than 34 million transactions.

The case study shows how the central bank built consensus across the financial sector and acts as both regulator and operator of the system. The Better Than Cash Alliance, hosted by UNDP’s Sustainable Finance Hub, provided technical assistance and connected the central bank with instant payment operators in Brazil, India, Ghana and Jordan. The case study also covers early impact and remaining challenges, such as fraud prevention, offering practical lessons for other countries.