Money Movements with Cobre ACH

Traditional Domestic Payouts in Colombia — Overview

ACH is Colombia’s standard interbank transfer system. Cobre uses ACH as the default local payout rail when Fast Pay is not available for the destination institution, so businesses can reach bank accounts nationwide from a Colombian Cobre Balance while keeping a unified ledger, transaction, and reporting model.

This guide focuses on what Cobre enables for ACH payouts.

1. What Cobre Enables with ACH

With ACH, Cobre allows companies to:

Send domestic payouts to bank accounts across Colombia

Reach financial institutions that are not part of Fast Pay

Use ACH automatically as the default rail when Fast Pay is unavailable

Execute payouts from Cobre Balances (COP)

Track payouts through standardized transactions and reports

Transfer without amount limits

ACH is fully integrated into Cobre’s local money movement ecosystem. Clients do not choose the rail — Cobre routes each payout automatically based on the destination bank.

2. ACH Payouts in the Cobre Model

An ACH payout in Cobre is a local money movement with the following characteristics:

Origin: A Colombian Cobre Balance (COP)

Destination: A recipient’s bank account (Savings, Current, Electronic Deposit)

Speed: Cycle-based; depends on the destination institution

Settlement: ACH cycles — 36 hours on business days, 72 hours on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays

Visibility: Reflected via transactions and balance updates

Routing: Automatic. ACH is selected when Fast Pay is not available for the destination bank

ACH is the broad-coverage rail that complements Fast Pay (faster host-to-host connections) and Bre-B (instant, key-based payouts).

3. Account-Based Payouts — Paying to Bank Accounts

Bank Accounts as Payment Destinations

ACH payouts are account-based, meaning funds are sent to recipients using their bank account details.

What this enables:

Coverage across Colombian financial institutions, including banks outside Fast Pay

Familiar experience for recipients

Support for operational and enterprise payment flows

Alignment with existing accounting and treasury processes

This makes ACH especially suitable when the business priority is reach — paying any supported bank account — rather than the fastest possible settlement.

4. Counterparties for ACH Payouts

Cobre uses Counterparties to represent recipients in ACH payouts.

ACH Counterparties represent:

A recipient’s bank account information

The required routing data to execute the transfer

Supported destination types:

Destination type	Counterparty type
Checking Account	`cc`
Savings Account	`ch`
Electronic Deposit	`dp`

From a capability perspective, this allows:

Reuse of recipient definitions across payouts

Unified management across ACH, Fast Pay, and Bre-B

The same counterparty can be used for later payouts. Cobre selects ACH or Fast Pay from the destination bank on each money movement — clients do not configure the rail.

To see which institutions support Fast Pay and which are served through ACH, refer to Colombian Bank Codes.

5. Speed, Settlement & Reliability

ACH is designed for predictable, nationwide coverage:

Default rail when Fast Pay is not available

Settlement time depends on the destination institution’s connection and operating hours

Institutions without a dedicated connection are processed in ACH cycles

Suitable when coverage matters more than near-real-time settlement

Maximum service levels for the total payment cycle

These are maximum service levels for the total payment cycle. Service levels are measured until the payment cycle completes, not against the maximum published time.

Payments to other banks — institutions without a dedicated Fast Pay connection — are processed in ACH cycles according to the following SLAs:

Up to 36 hours on business days

Up to 72 hours on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays

ACH cycle windows

ACH processes these payments in five daily cycles:

Cycle	Window	What it includes
Cycle 1	08:30–9:30	Sending of debits, credits, and pre-notifications
Cycle 2	11:00–12:00	General operations and return of rejected items from Cycle 1
Cycle 3	14:00–15:00	Sending of operations and returns from Cycle 2
Cycle 4	14:01–17:00	Sending of operations and returns from Cycle 3
Cycle 5	18:00–19:00	Returns from Cycle 4 only. No new transactions

Cycle 5

Cycle 5 is exclusive for returns from Cycle 4. New ACH transactions are not sent in this cycle.

Per-bank service levels for institutions with a dedicated connection are documented in Money Movements with Cobre Fast Pay.

6. Typical Business Use Cases for ACH

ACH payouts through Cobre are well suited for (not exhaustive):

Payouts to banks outside Fast Pay coverage

Supplier and vendor payments

Payroll and payroll-adjacent flows

Marketplace settlements

High-volume recurring or scheduled disbursements where nationwide reach matters more than minutes-level settlement

Businesses typically rely on Fast Pay when the destination bank supports it, and on ACH as the default fallback for every other supported institution.

7. Transactions & Reporting for ACH Payouts

Every ACH payout generates Transactions within Cobre, which:

Debit the originating Cobre Balance

Are categorized by payout type

Appear in transaction lists and balance statements

Are included in reconciliation and accounting reports

Status changes on the money movement (initiated, processing, completed, rejected, or failed) remain visible in Portal and through notifications. See Notifications and subscriptions and Reconciliation at Cobre.

This ensures ACH payouts meet the same enterprise-grade audit and reporting requirements as Fast Pay and Bre-B.

8. Controls & Operational Governance

ACH payouts benefit from the same governance features as other Cobre money movements:

Role-based permissions (Portal only)

Optional approval workflows (maker-checker)

Full historical traceability

Bulk initiation and scheduling for high-volume operations

This makes ACH suitable for finance, treasury, and operations teams that need nationwide coverage with the same controls they already use for other Colombian rails.

9. ACH vs Other Colombian Payout Rails

From a capability standpoint:

Bre-B → Instant, key-based payouts

Fast Pay → Fast, account-based payouts to supported institutions

ACH → Traditional, cycle-based payouts — the default rail when Fast Pay is not available

Cobre Value Added

Cobre routes payouts by automatically choosing the rail for the destination bank. Clients create one money movement. They do not select ACH or Fast Pay.

When the destination bank supports Fast Pay, Cobre uses Fast Pay

When Fast Pay is not available, Cobre uses ACH

Integrators can follow the same Fast Pay & ACH API Guide for both rails

10. Summary — What Cobre Delivers for ACH

With ACH, Cobre enables:

Nationwide account-based payouts in Colombia
Automatic fallback when Fast Pay is not available
Published ACH cycle SLAs (36 hours on business days, 72 hours on weekends and holidays)
Scalable recipient management via counterparties
Unified transactions, reporting, and controls

Cobre abstracts ACH cycle processing and destination-bank operating hours, and delivers ACH as the reliable default payout rail whenever Fast Pay cannot be used — inside the same local money movement platform.

Money Movements with Cobre ACH

Traditional Domestic Payouts in Colombia — Overview#

1. What Cobre Enables with ACH#

2. ACH Payouts in the Cobre Model#

3. Account-Based Payouts — Paying to Bank Accounts#

Bank Accounts as Payment Destinations#

4. Counterparties for ACH Payouts#

ACH Counterparties represent:#

5. Speed, Settlement & Reliability#

Maximum service levels for the total payment cycle#

ACH cycle windows#

6. Typical Business Use Cases for ACH#

7. Transactions & Reporting for ACH Payouts#

8. Controls & Operational Governance#

9. ACH vs Other Colombian Payout Rails#

10. Summary — What Cobre Delivers for ACH#