The legal deadline for advance payouts to ueno bank customers expires on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, eight days after the Banco Central del Paraguay (BCP, the country's central bank) seized the lender over serious solvency problems. As of Tuesday, the deposit guarantee fund had credited about $340 million to 1,738,804 savers, 93.1% of those eligible at this stage, according to official figures.
The number is striking, but it does not mean those customers got all their money back. The guarantee fund's director, José Maciel, estimated the total return will be around $740 million: "Coverage would be 27%," he said. In other words, roughly three quarters of the $2.8 billion ueno held in deposits is beyond the immediate reach of the guarantee.
Those deposits piled up in under three years. About 71% came from the private sector and the rest from public money, chiefly the Instituto de Previsión Social (IPS), Paraguay's social security and pension institute. The bank claimed more than three million customers; the BCP identified 1,867,000 as eligible for the guarantee fund, without saying how many fall outside it.
How the payouts worked
An emergency law passed by Congress last week allowed advances of up to 121,760,000 guaraníes (PYG) per customer, about $19,000. The ordinary ceiling of the guarantee is higher: 75 minimum wages, some 228,300,000 guaraníes, or roughly $37,000 per depositor and per institution.
The BCP staggered the credits. From Thursday, November 5, it paid customers with no debts holding deposits of up to 10 million guaraníes who had an account at another bank or finance company in the national system. On Monday the 9th it added debt-free savers below the legal cap on advances, as well as borrowers, from whom the overdue portion of their debt was deducted. In the final days came blocked accounts, savings certificates (CDA) and operations tied to pension fund managers.
Some 128,000 accounts are still pending, mostly ones with blocks, deposit certificates or operations linked to the Agencia Financiera de Desarrollo, the state development bank.
What has no date
Close to $2 billion still has no payment date, including the IPS money. President Pedro Alliana wrote on X that "priority will be given to recovering pension funds."
Once the deadline for advances passes, the BCP has 15 days to assess ueno's balance sheet and look for buyers. Central bank director Pedro de Jesús Acosta said other institutions will be invited to bid for the loan book, in whole or in parts.
The collapse brought down the government
The seizure triggered the most severe political crisis Paraguay has faced in decades. The Senate removed President Santiago Peña on Friday, November 6, with 44 votes in favour, for poor performance of duties in the case. That same night Alliana, until then vice president, was sworn in, and Congress elected Antonio Barrios as the new vice president.
Prosecutors charged Peña with breach of trust and self-dealing in office. He is in pretrial detention at the Regimiento Escolta Presidencial, the presidential guard barracks in Asunción. He denies the charges; his lawyer, Ricardo Preda, argues there is no reason to keep him detained. Carlos Carvallo, who resigned as BCP president after the collapse and had previously run ueno, was also charged.
At the impeachment trial, prosecutor Raúl Benítez said IPS deposits at ueno had multiplied roughly thirtyfold during Peña's term. The defence rejected the accusations and argued that the Contraloría General, Paraguay's comptroller general, had certified the former president's assets. Prosecutors are tracing funds moved abroad and have asked the United States, Luxembourg and Argentina for cooperation.
With information from Última Hora, ABC Color, Infobae, AFP and EFE.
