How does a Nequi payment work?
Nequi accounts are identified by the user’s 10-digit Colombian mobile number. At checkout the shopper chooses Nequi and either enters that number or is shown a QR code.
In the push flow, the provider sends a payment request to Nequi. The shopper receives a notification in the app showing the merchant and amount, and approves it. In the QR flow, the shopper scans the code with the Nequi app and confirms. Nequi debits the balance, and the provider reports an approved, pending or declined status to the merchant.
Payouts credit a Nequi account directly by phone number. Some providers also support recurring charges after the user authorises them once in the app. The shopper never shares a card number or bank login with the merchant, only the phone number tied to the wallet.
Why does Nequi matter for merchants?
Reach. Grupo Cibest, the parent of Bancolombia, reported 28.8 million Nequi accounts at the end of June 2026, of which 23.5 million were active. For many Colombians, including people who rarely use a bank account online, it is the everyday account. In August 2025 Nequi’s chief executive told La República the wallet handled about 700 million transactions a month.
Money already sits there. Users receive transfers into Nequi and spend from the same balance, so a checkout with Nequi meets them where their money is. Nequi also takes part in Bre-B, the central bank’s instant payment system, which connects 245 banks, cooperatives, digital wallets and payment providers, so money can move instantly between Nequi and other participating accounts.
A new legal status. On 1 September 2026 Nequi began operating as Nequi S.A. Compañía de Financiamiento, a finance company with its own licence, separate from Bancolombia but still part of Grupo Cibest. The Financial Superintendence approved the change in November 2025. Deposits are covered by Fogafín deposit insurance, and users kept the same app and accounts.
Payouts. For marketplaces and platforms that pay Colombian sellers, Nequi payouts put earnings in a wallet those sellers already use.
What can go wrong?
Most failed Nequi payments are abandoned approvals. Push notifications go unseen, shoppers switch apps and forget to return, or the request expires. One provider gives the shopper up to 45 minutes and notes that the request cannot be cancelled in the meantime, so the merchant must wait for a final status.
Wrong phone numbers and insufficient balances produce declines, and a shopper who tops up after a decline needs a new payment request.
Refund rules are narrow at some providers, for example same-day only, so later refunds need a separate transfer to the shopper’s wallet instead. On payouts, a mistyped phone number sends money to the wrong account, which is hard to recover.
Integration details may change. Now that Nequi operates as its own company, providers may update contracts, settlement accounts and technical details, so merchants should watch for notices from their provider.
How would Omno handle Nequi?
A merchant would offer Nequi in the hosted checkout, with the push or QR flow chosen by device, or through Direct Links on its own checkout. Pending approvals would be tracked until Nequi returns a final result, and that result would reach the merchant by webhook, which is the source of truth for confirming the order. Routing rules would choose the provider, and in the hosted checkout, if that provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment would cascade to the next provider in the rule until one accepts. Payouts would use the same API, and rules could limit them to the phone number the customer paid from. The routing-decision log would show every step.