Mexico makes cash the exception | TWIF Latin America

🇲🇽 Grupo Empresarial Maestro (GEMA) took control of Kubo Financiero, the digital Sofipo, after the CNBV approved the roughly $33 million deal, effective October 19. Kubo will add Crédito Maestro’s payroll loans to its credit, savings and investment products, with Gerardo Piña as CEO.

🇲🇽 Nu México launched Score Nu, a free in-app tool that rates customers’ financial habits monthly on a 0 to 1,000 scale and suggests how to improve.

🇲🇽 Belvo and dLocal partnered to bring direct debit to subscription and membership businesses in Mexico. 

🇲🇽 Mastercard introduced Wallet Pay, a modular portfolio that connects digital wallets to its global network and enables transfers across more than 200 countries and territories in 150 currencies.

🇨🇴 Bold secured an $11.3 million credit facility from BBVA Spark to expand lending to micro, small and medium-sized businesses in Colombia, part of its push to become a digital bank for SMEs.

🇦🇷 Rebill, the Argentine payment infrastructure company, raised a $5.4 million pre-Series A, bringing its total funding above $9 million. It will use the capital to grow in the US and launch Rebill Treasury and Rebill Platforms. Existing backers include Tiger Global and Y Combinator.

🇧🇴 Peso raised an undisclosed pre-seed round led by Tether to expand USDT on- and off-ramps in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina. Bolivians can already pay for Yango food deliveries in USDT through Peso.

🇵🇦 EFY Finance secured an undisclosed investment from Tether in its seed round to expand institutional use of USD₮ and USA₮ in Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Panama and Ecuador.

🇧🇷 Banco Central do Brasil and the National Monetary Council tightened the rules for Open Finance partnerships through Joint Resolution No. 21. Customers must now give separate consent for each partner company that receives their data, and partners can no longer use names that resemble banks or payment institutions.

🇲🇽 Mexico’s Senate approved the Digital Economy Law for Digital and Electronic Payments. The law lets the Finance Ministry name sectors where only digital payments are accepted and makes the digital CURP valid ID for opening financial services. 

🇵🇪 Peru’s SBS opened a consultation on the second part of its Open Finance rules, which sets out how banks and fintechs will verify each other and share customer data securely.

🇲🇽 General Atlantic plans to invest up to $10 billion in Mexico over the next five to ten years, focused on financial services, digital businesses and healthcare. The firm has put $4 billion into 18 Mexican companies since 2015, including Klar and Kavak.

🇧🇷 Sol Agora, the Brookfield-controlled solar credit fintech, launched Sol Tempus Capital, its own asset manager, to fund distributed solar lending through capital markets. Sol Agora has originated about $450 million in solar loans for more than 95,000 clients since 2022.

🇵🇪 Niubiz became Peru’s first local acquirer to accept Brazilian and Argentine digital wallets at its point-of-sale terminals, so tourists can pay with the apps they use at home. Colombian wallets are next.

🌎 BID Lab backed 58 projects worth $85 million between 2021 and 2025 to strengthen 245 startup support organizations. Through them it reached about 5,000 startups across Latin America.

🇨🇱 Chilean fintech Fintual confirmed it will open an AFP (pension fund manager), challenging Chile’s seven incumbents with nearly 4 million investors already on its platform.