Venezuela is closer to a formal default on its debts, with a global derivatives body set to rule on whether credit insurance should be paid out after a crucial payment deadline missed by state-backed oil company PDVSA. Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro last week announced that the country would have to restructure its foreign debts, but promised to make one last $1.1bn payment on a bond issued by PDVSA. The payment was due last Friday, and while some bondholders said they expected the money to arrive soon, others pointed out that the payment deadline had clearly been missed regardless. “There has been no official communication on the payment delays. It is really odd that funds haven’t been received with sufficient time to process if the funds were sent last week as officials indicated,” said Siobhan Morden, head of Latin American bond strategy at Nomura. A group assembled by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association will meet on Friday to decide whether PDVSA has triggered a “credit event”. Such a ruling would prompt payment on credit default swaps, instruments used as insurance against a default written on the PDVSA bond.