Paraguayan President Santiago Peña resigned on Thursday, weeks into a financial crisis triggered by the collapse of ueno, a digital lender that had grown from a niche fintech into a mid-tier bank.
Peña announced the decision in a recorded video address. “I do so with the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions in mind,” he said, according to Al Jazeera.
The resignation followed the opposition’s move to convene an extraordinary session of Congress to begin filing an impeachment motion, and came as protesters demanded he step down. Earlier the same day, Peña lost the backing of members of his own conservative party.
The bank at the centre of the crisis
Paraguay’s central bank intervened in ueno after determining the lender had breached minimum solvency requirements. The bank administered close to US$850 million in public funds and served roughly 3 million customers in a country of about 6.5 million people — a scale that left a large share of the population unable to reach their accounts once the intervention began.
Lawmakers accused Peña of conflicts of interest, misuse of pension funds, and institutional cover-ups connected to the lender’s failure. Hiru News, reporting the resignation the same evening, described ueno as a major digital financial institution that had maintained close ties with the government, and noted that Peña’s decision came only days after the central bank took control of it.
Vice President Pedro Alliana is set to take office as Peña’s replacement.
Peña, an ally of US President Donald Trump, took office in August 2023 after winning that year’s election for the long-governing Colorado Party.
Figures and quotations in this report are as attributed to each outlet. LankaNewz has not independently verified the deposit or customer totals.
