Brazilians report money trapped at Paraguay’s Ueno Bank after intervention by the central bank

Brazilians and their descendants living in Paraguay are among the customers caught by the shutdown of Ueno Bank, which was found insolvent and had access to deposits and investments blocked. For high-risk payment providers, the point is simple: when a bank that serves 40% of the country’s population stops operating, the cash-management risk does not stay inside that bank’s balance sheet.

1. Ueno Bank was declared insolvent and closed its doors, cutting customers off from accounts and investments. The Central Bank of Paraguay intervened and is now working on a plan to return trapped funds to depositors.
2. The bank serves 40% of Paraguay’s population, so the fallout spread fast. People who depended on Ueno alone were left unable to move money, while customers who had accounts at other banks were able to soften the damage.
3. The case has already produced legal and political consequences: eight current or former bank executives were placed in preventive detention, the president and two more directors of the monetary authority resigned, and the Chamber of Deputies is reviewing an impeachment request against President Santiago Peña.
4. Among those affected is Isabela, a 21-year-old Paraguayan marketing agency owner in Santa Rita, the daughter of a Brazilian who moved to Paraguay. She moved her money to Itaú before the shutdown after hearing rumors about Ueno, while her mother and sister kept their funds in the bank and ended up with blocked balances.
5. Software engineer Dellean Santos Teixeira, 36, a Brazilian from Rio de Janeiro who has lived in Paraguay for three years, said his own finances were less exposed because his funds are spread across several institutions, mainly outside the country. He also described a wider pattern among Brazilians in Paraguay: the speed of opening an account, without needing to prove the origin of the money, was a major draw.