Paraguay President Santiago Peña resigns after collapse of Ueno digital bank

Paraguayan President Santiago Peña stepped down on Thursday after the collapse of Ueno Bank triggered a political crisis and left customers unable to access their funds. For PSPs and banks, the useful part is not the resignation itself; it is the chain reaction when a regulated lender’s solvency problem turns into a liquidity and confidence event fast enough to spill into payments, FX, and political risk.

1. Paraguay’s central bank opened resolution proceedings for Ueno Bank on Tuesday after determining that its solvency ratio had fallen below half of the regulatory minimum. In plain terms, the regulator moved from supervision to resolution once the bank’s capital position crossed a line it could not ignore.
2. Peña said in a video posted to X that he was resigning to preserve Paraguay’s stability, social peace and democratic institutions. He also said his priority was protecting Paraguayans who had entrusted their savings to the financial system.
3. The political pressure had been building around Peña’s former business ties to Grupo Vázquez, the conglomerate that controls Ueno Bank. According to AP, he remained a business partner of the group until March 2025, and he has denied wrongdoing, saying the issue began as a regulatory matter before turning into a political dispute.
4. The crisis also showed up in crypto pricing. On Bybit’s Paraguay-facing peer-to-peer marketplace, one listing viewed early Thursday offered Tether’s USDt at 6,942 Paraguayan guaraníes, about 13% above the central bank’s Nov. 4 dollar reference rate of 6,144.02 guaraníes per US dollar. That kind of spread is the market telling you that access to bank money is no longer assumed.
5. Lawmakers were debating impeachment proceedings over alleged conflicts of interest, misuse of pension funds and institutional cover-ups linked to Ueno Bank’s collapse, according to Reuters. Peña was elected in April 2023 and took office that August, with a five-year term scheduled to end in 2028; under Paraguay’s Constitution, Vice President Pedro Alliana would serve the remainder of the term if Congress accepts the resignation.