Millions of Ueno Bank customers have been locked out of their accounts, and now Paraguay’s president is stepping down. Santiago Peña announced his resignation Thursday as the bank’s collapse engulfed his government. That leaves depositors watching a political reckoning while they wait to find out when they can withdraw their savings.
Peña explained his decision in a message posted on social media:
Mensaje del Presidente de la República, Santiago Peña, al pueblo paraguayo. https://t.co/RBz6IfFV9L
— Santiago Peña (@SantiPenap) November 5, 2026
“I have made the decision to submit my resignation from the Presidency of the Republic.”
Soon after, the lower house voted unanimously to open impeachment proceedings, on charges brought by opposition lawmakers and ruling-party dissidents. The Senate must still decide whether to accept his resignation or move ahead with the trial. Vice President Pedro Alliana has put his bid for the party's 2028 nomination on hold.
Peña won the presidency in 2023 for the conservative Colorado Party. He has denied wrongdoing. I’d like to see a conservative government succeed, but there’s no defending an outcome that leaves people wondering whether they can get their own savings back.
Earlier this week, the central bank's board voted unanimously to put Ueno into resolution. An inspection by the central bank’s Superintendency of Banks found Ueno’s solvency ratio had fallen below half the legal minimum. Customers learned through the bank's app that they could no longer access or withdraw from their accounts. The bank has about 3 million customers.
Outside a closed branch in Ñemby, customer Manuel Cáceres had a straightforward demand: “We’re demanding access to money we have here at ueno bank.”
Peña was still in business with Grupo Vázquez, Ueno’s owner, until March 2025. The bank says he never personally held shares or invested in Ueno. Former central bank chief Carlos Carvallo’s history is more direct: Before Peña put him in charge of the central bank, he ran Ueno. The central bank says he stayed out of decisions involving his former bank. Put it together, and the pattern is hard to ignore: A lender owned by the president's business partner, supervised by a central bank whose president once ran it, and holding public money that made up about a quarter of its deposits, according to Ueno's own president.
According to Carvallo, regulators first questioned Ueno’s loans to companies tied to its owners. When they looked further, they found more serious irregularities. I’d want to see those loan records. Who got the money, who signed off, and how much can the bank recover?
On Tuesday, Peña asked Carvallo to resign. Prosecutors also ordered eight people linked to Ueno arrested.
The deposit guarantee should cover the full balances of about 97 percent of depositors, according to initial estimates. It covers roughly $38,000 per person. But Ueno also held between $800 million and $850 million in public funds, and officials hadn’t promised full recovery of money above the limit.
The state pension and health fund said monthly pension payments would continue because that money was held elsewhere. It still needed another bank for the 32,000 retirees who collect their pensions through Ueno and planned legal action to recover its investment.
That’s where my sympathy lies. Those retirees weren’t choosing which companies Ueno should lend to or who should supervise the bank. They were collecting pensions. Supporting a free economy gives us every reason to demand answers on their behalf.