In brief
On November 5, 2026, President Santiago Peña announced his resignation in response to the collapse of Ueno Bank, which left nearly 3 million customers without access to their accounts. Lawmakers are moving forward with impeachment proceedings against Peña and Vice President Pedro Alliana, while Paraguay’s central bank has begun resolution proceedings for the failed bank. The situation remains fluid, with unresolved questions about the future of the deposit guarantee fund and the outcome of the political crisis.
Paraguayan President Santiago Peña resigned on Thursday amid mounting pressure over the collapse of digital lender Ueno Bank, which left millions of customers unable to access their accounts. In a video posted on X, Peña said: I have decided to submit my resignation as president of the republic, citing the need to safeguard national stability, social peace and democratic institutions. He apologized to the public for his role and expressed hope that depositors’ savings would be returned and public funds protected.
Paraguay’s central bank announced on Tuesday that it had begun resolution proceedings for Ueno Bank after determining that the lender’s solvency ratio had fallen to less than half the required minimum. The bank’s applications and cards stopped working following the intervention, affecting an estimated 3 million customers as of June, according to local media.
On Wednesday, a group of 35 lawmakers submitted a proposal to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Peña and Vice President Pedro Alliana. They accused the president of conflicts of interest stemming from his previous stake in Ueno Holding, where he held shares until 2025. Those allegations were echoed by former President Horacio Cartes, a political mentor of Peña and leader of the ruling Colorado Party, who announced his support for impeachment on Thursday.
Other political fallout followed Peña’s resignation. Central Bank chief Carlos Carvallo resigned at Peña’s request, while prosecutors ordered the arrest of eight Ueno Bank executives. All eight were subsequently detained, per local media reports.
Vice President Alliana is set to succeed Peña as the head of state. Lawmakers have indicated that an extraordinary session will voice an impeachment motion in Congress, with some members urging that the president be tried rather than accepted as having resigned voluntarily.
Al Jazeera’s Latin America editor Lucia Newman noted that lawmakers are currently tying the impeachment process to the search for negligence and possible complicity in Ueno’s insolvency. The president’s claim that he “is stepping down to preserve democratic institutions” contrasts with accusations of misuse of pension funds and institutional cover‑ups linked to Ueno’s rapid growth from a niche fintech player into a mid‑tier bank administering close to $850 million in public funds.
Ueno Bank has yet to make a public statement about the crisis. The deposit guarantee fund’s capacity to return the affected customers’ funds remains untested, and the final resolution of the bank’s insolvency has not yet been fully determined.
Unresolved questions persist: it is unclear whether the impeachment proceedings will move beyond the proposal stage, whether the deposit guarantee fund will fully reimburse the 3 million affected customers, whether the resolution process will restore Ueno Bank’s solvency, whether the bank will issue an official statement, and whether all public funds withdrawn will be protected under the current regulatory framework.
