The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | August 18th

By Puja Sharma

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements. For Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

Vesttoo, an Israeli FinTech, said it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court. This will allow it to file legal action against those responsible for a fake collateral scandal, as reported by Reuters.

Following the discovery of fraudulent letters of credit used on its platform, Vesttoo – part-backed by Banco Santander’s FinTech venture capital arm Mouro Capital – has laid off staff, closed offices and appointed an interim CEO. Vesttoo offers insurers access to insurance-linked securities, an alternative form of reinsurance. These securities may be backed by collateral in the form of letters of credit.

“We believe the steps we are taking are best for Vesttoo’s long-term growth and success,” interim CEO Ami Barlev said in the statement. “Not only will they result in a strong, more sustainable capital structure, but they will provide us with the platform to aggressively pursue all parties that harmed our business.”

Vesttoo provides insurers with access to so-called insurance-linked securities – an alternative form of reinsurance. These securities may be backed by collateral in the form of letters of credit.

Deals of the week

• Temenos recognised as Trusted Cloud Provider by CAS
• Mastercard Strive India to foster financial inclusion for SMEs
• Credgenics bags $50m in Series B funding for SEA expansion
• Klar raises $100m in Debt Facility to expand credit products in Mexico
• Paddle announces Paddle Billing API set for SaaS companies
• Bank Nizwa rolls out eco-friendly debit card for corporate & SMEs
• NPCI rolls out UPI Chalega0 promoting instant digital payments
• BizPay secures Seed round funding led by Inflection Point Ventures
• RBI pilots a Public Tech platform to streamline digital credit delivery
• BharatPe rolls out ‘Swipe Android’ machine for merchant payments
• TerraPay secures EMI license in Italy, eyes European expansion

Be on the lookout for

Mexico City is gearing up to host the 15th edition of the FinTech Summit Latam, which will occur on August 31st and September 1st. This event, which has evolved and grown over the years, primarily aims to illuminate the path to the future of the financial industry in Latin America.

This year, the summit will feature 40 distinguished speakers from various countries, including Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, the United States, and Mexico. This diversity promises to provide a range of perspectives on the megatrends that are redefining the financial sector.

The summit will focus on critical aspects such as emerging technologies, updated regulations, and the convergence of the financial industry with other areas to enhance financial inclusion. Among the highlighted topics are Fintelcos (mobile operators), Open Finance, and FaaS.