Paraguay's president resigns: what next for ueno depositors

How much each ueno bank depositor receives, when the rest of the guarantee arrives, what Peña's exit changes and what we expect from the crisis in the coming weeks.

Three days were enough to shake a bank, the Central Bank and the presidency of Paraguay at once. On 2 November 2026 the Central Bank of Paraguay placed ueno bank into resolution and froze its deposits. On 3 November the Central Bank's governor, Carlos Carvallo, who had run ueno bank until August 2023, resigned. On 5 November President Santiago Peña announced his resignation in a recorded message. For depositors, the news that matters most came the same Thursday: payment of the guarantee advance began.

What happened in Paraguay between 2 and 5 November?

The fall of ueno bank cut off about 2.9 million depositors from their money, among them pensioners, companies and the state itself. Prosecutors detained eight of the bank's executives. It was Peña who asked Carvallo to step down, and the Central Bank passed to board member Liana Caballero as interim governor.

After Peña's message, Interior Minister Enrique Riera delivered the resignation letter to Congress. The Chamber of Deputies still voted unanimously, 78 votes, to open impeachment proceedings against the president, and rejected impeachment of Vice President Pedro Alliana by 48 votes to 30.

The final word belongs to Congress sitting as both chambers: Article 202 of the Constitution gives it the power to accept or reject the resignation, by a simple majority of members present. The ruling party wants to accept it the same day so the crisis does not drag on: acceptance shelves the impeachment, Alliana is sworn in and serves out the term to August 2028, and Congress elects a new vice president. The opposition wants to reject it, because a former president becomes a senator for life, and that seat, it argues, would give Peña immunity from the investigation.

Does Peña's resignation change anything for your money?

The payment schedule does not depend on who holds the presidency. It is set by the deposit guarantee law, Law 2,334/03, and carried out by the Central Bank's Deposit Guarantee Fund, the reserve that banks pay into so that depositors get their money back when one of them fails. Foreigners and non-residents are covered on the same terms as Paraguayans. The decisive change came before the resignation: on 4 November 2026 Congress unanimously passed Law 7,745/2026 and Peña signed it the same day. It was one of his last signatures as president, and for depositors the most important one.

The new law creates an advance on the guarantee. Before it, the whole payment waited for a 15-day deadline, extendable by another 15. With the advance, part of the money starts flowing within 24 hours and is completed within five business days at most. The same law lets the Central Bank provide liquidity to the fund with securities from its own balance sheet, so the money for the advance is there with or without a political crisis.

How much do ueno bank depositors get, and when?

At first the Central Bank spoke of a first payment of $1,624 (₲10 million). The law multiplied it by twelve, and if your balance was below the advance, you get it in full. The amounts, at ₲6,160.37 per dollar on 5 November 2026:

Two details work in your favour. If you have a loan with ueno bank, only the instalments overdue on 2 November are deducted from the advance, not the whole debt, and the loan keeps its normal schedule. And the advance does not reduce the guarantee: it is a payment on account of the total.

Notice arrives by email. The Central Bank writes to each depositor with the name of the bank or finance company assigned to pay them, and the money is used through that institution's app. Depositors with an account at another bank receive a transfer, those without one collect at the assigned institution, and pensioners of the Social Security Institute are paid into accounts opened at several banks.

What if you had more than ₲228.3 million?

The excess has no guarantee, but it does not vanish: it is repaid from the bank's assets. Using last month's figures, the Central Bank estimates that the guarantee is enough for 98% of cases; the remaining 2% are large depositors. The administrators have about 15 days to choose a path: sell loan portfolios, have another institution buy the bank, or wind it up.

In the queue for the excess, the law puts the Social Security Institute, the pension fund for private-sector workers, first, and the other large depositors after it. With the institute's $355 million at stake, what a private depositor recovers depends on what the bank's loans are really worth. The Senate rejected extending the fund's guarantee to all public money deposited at ueno bank.

What happens to mutual funds and securities linked to ueno?

The crisis reached the stock market too. The Securities Superintendency suspended redemptions, distributions and new subscriptions in 13 mutual funds holding money at ueno bank. From 5 November 2026 redemptions resume gradually, fund by fund, as each manager recalculates its unit value. The rule is strict: ueno bank bonds are valued at zero, and so are the fund's deposits above the guarantee until recoveries are known. That is why a unit in a fund heavy in ueno is worth less than before 2 November.

Shares and bonds bought through the group's brokerage are a different story: the securities depository that holds the market's securities has confirmed they are kept separate from the brokerage's own assets.

What do we expect next?

Our reading of the coming weeks, from most likely to least clear:

• Payments stay on schedule. The advance is completed in the week of 9 November 2026 and the rest of the guarantee arrives within the legal deadlines. Guaranteed deposits will most likely end up at other banks, because the law gives priority to such a transfer.
• The Central Bank still has no permanent governor. On 4 November Peña nominated Raúl Vera Bogado to lead it and the Senate turned him down, approving only one new board member, Pedro Acosta. The president nominates and the Senate confirms, so if Alliana takes office we expect a new nominee within weeks and a reform of bank supervision. The first piece is already in place: the 4 November law requires every bank to keep a register of balances per depositor and hand it to the Banking Superintendency within 24 hours on request.
• Politics will stay noisy for a while. If Congress rejects the resignation, impeachment moves to the Senate; if it accepts, the fight continues over Peña's immunity. Either way prosecutors press ahead with the ueno case, which weighs on the big decisions, such as the fate of the bank's assets, not on the advance, which already has a law and money behind it.
• The guaraní will stay under pressure. Between 3 and 5 November 2026 the dollar gained 3.1% against the guaraní. We expect depositors to keep spreading money across several banks, and banks to ask for more documents before opening new accounts.
• The excess will take months. For large depositors the realistic horizon is months, not days: first the exclusion balance sheet, then the sale of assets.

What to do with your money now

Check your email, including the spam folder. A message in the Central Bank's name from any domain other than bcp.gov.py, or one asking for your password or a fee to speed up payment, is a scam. Open an account at another bank now if you do not have one: a transfer is the simplest way to get paid, and your next salary and direct debits will need a home too.

The guarantee counts per person and per bank. If your balance exceeds it, splitting the money between two or three banks keeps all of it covered, and holding part in a bank account in another country also protects you from a local crisis. The basics on the resolution, cards, loans and company accounts are in our guide to what happened at ueno bank. If you are bringing money in from abroad to replace frozen funds, see how to send money to Paraguay without losing on the exchange rate.

How we help after ueno bank

Since 2008 we have helped families and companies that need a new bank, an account abroad or a plan B outside their country, always through official routes.

For larger fortunes, a foundation or trust organises inheritance and lets the family spread savings across several countries and banks. If you live in Paraguay as a foreigner, check the tax rules in Paraguay before moving money between countries.

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