The deployment is part of a wider payments modernization initiative aimed at digitalizing ACH Colombia’s entire payments operation with Volante. As a result, customers can now be onboarded six times faster than before. They can also enjoy services with a higher level of personalization and receive funds twice as fast. Over time, ACH Colombia will also be able to offer customers an ever-increasing variety of domestic payment services through the portal.

"ACH Colombia is investing in the future to improve the quality of our services and continue to contribute to the integration of the country’s financial ecosystem. The initiative represents a complete digital overhaul that sees us transform into a fully hybrid and multi-cloud operation fit for modern times. Preliminary customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” said, Luis Alberto Fernández Pulido, VP Operations and Technology, ACH Colombia.

ACH Colombia manages payments in Colombia’s social security system through its platform to make the settlement and payment: SOI, provides secure online payment and purchase options by debiting the resources online from savings, checking or electronic deposit accounts: PSE, and offers the possibility of making interbank transfers immediately with Transfiya. The company handles 95 percent of Colombia’s interbank transfers, and during the first half of 2022, more than 167 million transactions in Colombia went through its network, or over 27 million transactions per month. As the firm actively improves Colombian citizens’ quality of life by expanding digital financial inclusion, it expects that number to more than double, to over 35 million per month.

The initiative originated in ACH Colombia’s realization that, in order to deliver on this tall order, it needed to modernize its payments infrastructure and processes. Since it had already moved its entire operation to a fully hybrid and multi-cloud environment as part of a bank-wide digital transformation initiative, the solution needed to be cloud-native.

“We conducted a rigorous selection process and opted for Volante’s VolPay because of its superior cloud-native, low-code architecture, rich functionality, and ease of integration with our cloud-resident middle and back-office functions,” he added. “Our business models also go hand in hand, which is a prerequisite for short and long-term success,” said Fernández Pulido.

“Volante has provided us with a solid foundation to deliver on our strategy and roll out our customer-centric new business model. We’re well set up for the future, including ISO 20022 and real-time capabilities, and will be able to expand our product offering and add more payment service variety whenever customer demand changes or the market dictates it,” said Fernández Pulido.

“During the last three years, financial businesses have had to adapt to new ways of working and interacting with their customers, making for a heavy reliance on digital channels. In Colombia, 61 percent of consumers use payment services from neo banks. This digital shift means that banks must adapt and make smart investments in technology to support their customers and help them grow,” said Vijay Oddiraju, CEO, Volante Technologies.

“By digitalizing its entire payments operation, ACH Colombia is leapfrogging its peers,” Oddiraju continued. “It is the first financial services firm in Colombia to modernize its payments infrastructure in the cloud, and only the second in the entire region. We congratulate them on this momentous achievement and look forward to continuing our partnership with them as the region continues to accelerate towards a 24x7 real-time digital future.”