Paraguay Lawmakers Seek Pena Impeachment After Ueno Collapse Locks Out 3 Million Customers
Updated
Updated · Reuters · Nov 4
Paraguay Lawmakers Seek Pena Impeachment After Ueno Collapse Locks Out 3 Million Customers
3 articles · Updated · Reuters · Nov 4
Summary
Thirty-five lawmakers filed impeachment articles against President Santiago Pena in Paraguay’s 80-seat lower house and asked for an extraordinary session on Thursday to debate his future.
The push follows the collapse of digital lender ueno, which left about 3 million customers in the 6.5 million-person country unable to access accounts after the central bank intervened over solvency breaches.
Opposition lawmakers accuse Pena of conflicts of interest, misuse of pension funds and institutional cover-ups; Pena, once a shareholder in Grupo Vazquez, said those responsible for irregularities would face justice.
The fallout already forced the central bank chief’s resignation, led to the detention of eight ueno executives and triggered banking-app outages as customers shifted funds.
Opponents still lack the two-thirds majority needed to remove Pena, but the crisis is testing Paraguay’s reputation as a stable destination for foreign investment.
With 60% of Paraguay's adults locked out of savings, did the President's business ties cause the catastrophic collapse of Ueno Bank?
Will Paraguay's deposit guarantee actually protect millions from financial ruin, or is the Ueno Bank collapse just the beginning of a systemic meltdown?