COLOMBIA

Within the framework of the launch of the sandbox by the Financial Superintendency of Colombia (SFC) starting in March, the participating Davivienda – Binance alliance reported that Bitcoin could be automatically converted to Colombian pesos in the country. The first pilot of withdrawal and deposit of cryptocurrencies in Colombia would allow for the conversion of cryptocurrencies to local currency in real time within the financial system. This implies that there would be a Colombian peso (COP) exchange rate vs. the official price of bitcoin (BTC). However, this has not yet been confirmed by the SFC. The institution is expected to provide more specifications on the matter in the coming weeks.

In this sense, Binance said that a gateway was incorporated that allows converting the value of the cryptocurrency to Colombian pesos in real time, transferring the earnings in pesos to the client’s Davivienda account. They also assured that pesos can be transferred from Davivienda to the Binance platform. This money will be available for when the client requires or decides to buy cryptocurrencies.

In any case, the representatives of the sector pointed out that this new equivalence between the Colombian peso and the prices of cryptocurrencies would not be exclusive to a particular bill, but would be a general measure for the implementation of the nine pilots that will govern from March. In addition, there could be more than one cryptocurrency exchange rate, since at least seven electronic currencies would be integrated into the system as pairs of the Colombian peso.

“La Arenera” is the framework provided in the SFC for testing technological innovations applied to financial services and the stock market or insurance, in a controlled and supervised space. The alliances that operate in the SFC sandbox are the following: Banco de Bogotá – Bitso; Bancolombia – Gemini; Bank of Bogotá – Buda; Coltefinanciera – Obsidiam; Davivienda – Binance; Powwi – Binance; Coink – Banexcoin; Movii – Panda; and Movii – Bitpoint.