Colombia’s Financial System Processed More Than 6 Billion Operations in the First Quarter of 2026: Report

Non-branch channels carried 85% of operations and 70% of value.

Colombia’s financial system handled 6,078 million operations in the first quarter of 2026, according to the latest operations report from the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (Financial Superintendency of Colombia), the country’s banking and securities regulator.

Credit institutions and specialized electronic deposit and payment companies, known by their Spanish acronym SEDPE, accounted for those 6,078 million operations. Of that total, 3,568 million were monetary operations worth $3,153 trillion COP, and 2,509 million were non-monetary, such as balance inquiries.

“84.6% of all operations were carried out through non-presential channels, accounting for 69.9% of the value transacted.” — Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, first-quarter 2026 operations report

Separately, low-value payment system administrators, or EASPBV, together with the Banco de la República (Colombia’s central bank), processed 963 million monetary operations worth $1,081 trillion COP.

The Financial Superintendency of Colombia estimated that 66% of monetary interactions came from mobile applications. Stock photo by Kevin Schneider via Pixabay.

Non-presential channels — those that do not require a visit to a branch or physical point — continued to account for the bulk of activity, handling 84.6% of all operations and 69.9% of the value transacted. The remaining 15.4% of operations went through in-person channels. For the quarter, internet and bank offices were the channels through which the largest amounts of money moved.

Among in-person channels, the largest share of operations was concentrated in three departments: Bogotá at 33%, Antioquia at 25%, and Valle del Cauca at 13%.

For monetary operations, mobile applications were the most-used channel at 66%, followed by point-of-sale terminals at 13%. For non-monetary operations, mobile applications accounted for 81% and internet for 16%, while interactive voice response systems, virtual assistants, and telephone call centers were the least used.

Measured by the volume of payments tied to economic activity, professional, scientific, and technical activities led with 27% of the total. They were followed by wholesale and retail trade, including motor vehicle and motorcycle repair, at 19%; financial and insurance activities at 12%; information and communications at 11%; and electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply at 10%.

Headline image: Stock photo by Rupixen via Pixabay.