🔴BREAKING: Millions Locked Out as Paraguay Bank Fails. A Warning to The World?

Paraguay's president Santiago Peña has resigned after the collapse of ueno bank, the country's biggest digital lender, froze 3 million customers — 60% of all adults — out of their accounts, with $800 million in public deposits trapped inside. The central bank seized the lender after its capital fell below half the legal minimum, and 3 days of protests pushed Congress toward impeachment.

• The seizure: Paraguay's central bank put ueno bank into resolution on Nov 3, after adjusted books cut its solvency ratio to a reported 5.56% — below half the 12% legal minimum; the board had voted unanimously the night before, on Nov 2

• 3 million customers — about 60% of Paraguay's adults, in a country of 6.5 million people — lost access to their accounts, the app, cards and transfers overnight; branches locked their doors as lines formed outside

• About $800 million in public deposits sat inside ueno — roughly a quarter of its total — including money from the state pension and health fund and the operators of Paraguay's giant hydroelectric dams; lawmakers say the bank administered close to $850 million in public funds

• Central Bank President Carlos Carvallo — who ran ueno's predecessor before Peña appointed him to lead the regulator — resigned on Tuesday at the president's request and stays on only to oversee the transition

• Prosecutors detained 8 senior executives, including ueno founder Miguel Vázquez and bank president Juan Manuel Gustale, and 27 people face charges in the case; investigators allege poorly documented loans to companies linked to the bank's owners, with expenses wrongly counted as assets

• Peña — a shareholder in the bank's parent, Ueno Holding, until March 2025 and a former Grupo Vázquez business partner — announced his resignation by video on Thursday, saying he acted to protect the country's stability; he apologized but stopped short of accepting responsibility

• Minutes later, the Chamber of Deputies voted 78 to 0 to impeach him anyway; Congress must accept or reject the resignation, and Vice President Pedro Alliana is in line to be sworn in and finish the term to 2028

• Regulators plan to move customers' accounts and whatever assets still hold value to other banks before liquidating what is left; a fast-tracked law lets the national Guarantee Fund start paying depositors

Sources: Reuters, The Associated Press, BBC News, CNN