GLOSSARY · BLOCKCHAIN & WEB3
Fiducia Mercantil (Colombian Trust)
What the Colombian fiducia mercantil is: an autonomous estate managed by trust companies supervised by the SFC, and its role in tokenization.
WHAT IS IT? · FOR DUMMIES
The fiducia mercantil is the Colombian version of the trust: you hand assets to a trust company — supervised by the Financial Superintendence (SFC) — which manages them as an autonomous estate for whoever the contract names. It is one of the most developed trust industries in Latin America and the backbone of the country's real estate financing.
WHAT IS IT? · PRO
Regulated in the Colombian Commercial Code, the fiducia mercantil separates the entrusted assets from the estate of every party; the trust company — a professional entity supervised by the SFC — is responsible for managing them under the contract. Variants: real estate fiducia (pre-sales and projects), administration, guarantee and investment.
Its role in tokenization is direct: Colombian proptech structures on fiducia, representing fiduciary rights in tokens — the local variant of the regional pattern we explain in the fideicomiso entry and in the guide to tokenization in Colombia. With crypto custody open to supervised trust companies and banks since 2026, the whole structure can stay inside the supervised perimeter.
01 / Key points
- Colombian trust: autonomous estate + trust company supervised by the SFC
- Variants: real estate, administration, guarantee, investment
- De facto vehicle of proptech and tokenization in Colombia
- Since 2026, supervised trust companies and banks may custody crypto
02 / Advantages
- Asset separation with a supervised professional manager
- Mature, standardised trust industry
- Fiduciary rights divisible into tokens
03 / Disadvantages
- Trust incorporation and administration costs
- No specific tokenization law yet: structured on practice
- Uneven quality between trust companies: choosing well matters