“Half of the population of Paraguay no longer has access to their money” after the fall of Ueno Bank

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https://cryptoast.fr/paraguay-crise-bancaire-ueno-bank-comptes-geles-moitie-population/

The Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) officially announced its takeover of Ueno Bank this Tuesday, November 3, 2026. The establishment, the fifth largest private bank in the country, had approximately 2.94 million customers and 17,300 billion Paraguayan guaranis in deposits, or nearly 2.6 billion euros.

In a country with nearly 6.5 million inhabitants, the shock wave is massive. Nearly half of the population finds themselves locked out of their accounts. Withdrawals, transfers, card payments, everything is frozen overnight.

Faced with the scale of the crisis, the president of the BCP, Carlos Carvallo, presented his resignation at the request of President Santiago Peña, according to Reuters. Liana Caballero has been appointed interim president to lead the financial resolution of the establishment.

Business communication | Banco Central initiates the resolution process of one bank

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Reuters and several observers point out that Ueno Bank is best known for being a “digital lender”. The establishment, heir to the financial El Comercio (45 years of existence), was launched commercially on February 28, 2022, and had received authorization from the Central Bank of Paraguay. Ueno Bank was presented as the first 100% digital bank in the country.

In March, Ueno Bank still had a solvency ratio of 15%, well above the legal minimum of 12%. On paper, everything was fine. But a thorough inspection of the loan portfolio turned everything upside down. Regulators discovered that the bank granted credits “a sola firma”, that is to say on simple signature, to companies linked to its own shareholders, without guarantee or serious credit analysis.

When BCP requested a cleanup, other companies took out new loans to repay the first ones. A loop which ended up being unmasked, causing the solvency ratio to fall “below half of the legal minimum”, according to financial analyst Roberto Rios on X.

The damage directly affects the Paraguayan state, because Ueno Bank managed between $800 and $850 million in public funds, including around $380 million invested by the Social Insurance Institute (IPS), the national pension and health fund. This IPS exhibition notably includes the accounts of around 32,000 retirees who received their pension via Ueno. Paraguayan prosecutors ordered the arrest of 8 people, including CEO Miguel Vázquez, all of whom have since turned themselves in to police.

Machine-translated from French