Paraguay Dissolved Its Fifth-Largest Bank. Cover Stops at G.228,300,000 a Depositor, and Above That the State Pension Fund Is Paid First.

By LCN Business Desk

A company that kept its working capital at Paraguay's ueno bank now knows almost exactly what it will get back, and the figure is about US$38,600. The Banco Central del Paraguay dissolved the lender on 2 November, froze its assets and liabilities, and left roughly three million customers without an app, a card or a counter. Cover runs out at a fixed multiple of the minimum wage, and what sits above that line is recovered from the sale of the bank, in an order set by statute.

The board voted unanimously and announced the decision after three in the morning on Tuesday 3 November. What triggered it was the bank's solvency ratio, which the central bank found had fallen below 50 per cent of the required minimum. La Nación reported the central bank setting out the irregularities behind the dissolution. The bank now goes through what Paraguayan law calls resolution, the winding-up procedure in Ley 2.334/03, which also created the Fondo de Garantía de Depósitos that pays depositors under it.

How much is guaranteed, and who sets the figure?

Seventy-five times the monthly minimum wage, counted per bank rather than per account.

The ceiling is not written as a sum of money. It is written as a multiple of the wage, so it rises every time the wage does. Paraguay's general minimum wage went up five per cent to G.3,044,000 a month on 1 July 2026, and seventy-five of those comes to G.228,300,000 exactly. A company working out its own exposure has to multiply by the wage in force on the day, not by the figure it read last year.

*Guarantee terms as reported by Paraguayan and regional outlets covering the dissolution. Dollar figures are Infobae's US$38,622 for the ceiling, and the advance converted on the same basis. The Banco Central del Paraguay's own guidance on the fund cannot be reached from outside Paraguay.*

Two of those lines decide most of what a depositor recovers. Because balances at one bank are added together first, a company that spread its money across four accounts at ueno bank still has one ceiling rather than four. And because the ceiling applies at each bank separately, the only thing that increases cover is a second bank.

What happens to money above the ceiling?

It is paid out of the liquidation, in an order the law sets.

Depositors above the ceiling are paid from whatever the bank's assets fetch when they are sold. The Instituto de Previsión Social, Paraguay's social security institute, comes first in that queue, and large depositors follow. The IPS has around US$380 million in the bank, and a prosecutor has since told the Senate that [its position there grew about thirty times in 31 months](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/paraguay-pension-fund-paid-first-ueno-bank-business-depositors-2026/), and the Ministry of Economy's deposits are frozen with everything else.

A company above the ceiling is therefore paid after a state institution with a nine-figure dollar claim, out of a sale whose proceeds nobody can yet estimate. The central bank has up to fifteen days to draw up the exclusion balance that settles who is owed what.

Regional press puts a preliminary estimate of about 97 per cent of savings accounts fully covered by the fund. That figure counts accounts and not money. A guarantee built on a multiple of the wage covers almost every household and almost no company treasury.

What would the 24-hour bill change?

It would pay part of the guarantee sooner. It would not make the guarantee any larger.

Paraguay's Senate has passed a bill amending Ley 2.334/03 to let the fund pay out up to 40 times the minimum wage, about G.121,760,000, within 24 hours of a bank being dissolved, against the present rule of 15 calendar days extendable by another 15. The bill says plainly that this is a payment on account of the full cover, so it changes neither the ceiling nor the order in which claims above it are met.

The bill has gone from the Senate to the Cámara de Diputados. It has not been signed into law, and none of it is in force. The deadline it would replace is already running: fifteen days from 2 November falls on Tuesday 17 November, and the extension the law allows would carry it to 2 December. The central bank's interim president, Liana Caballero, has said the first disbursement will be up to G.10,000,000, with depositors split into three tranches whose dates, locations and requirements have not been set.

Who has been removed, and who has been charged?

The central bank's president is gone and three of the bank's directors have been detained.

President Santiago Peña asked Carlos Carvallo to resign as president of the Banco Central del Paraguay, and Carvallo put his position at the disposal of the Senate. Liana Caballero is acting in his place. The fund now has twelve days to begin paying under an acting president, after the Chamber of Deputies impeached Peña 78-0 on 5 November.

Federico Miguel Vazquez Villasanti presented himself to the Policía Nacional at four in the afternoon on Tuesday 3 November, at the Departamento de Investigaciones in Asunción, the third director of the bank to be detained. The prosecution has filed the case as breach of trust and others. La Nación identifies him as the bank's chief executive and Última Hora as its first vice-president.

What does a Caribbean business take from this?

Two figures, and both can be looked up before anything goes wrong.

Deposit protection almost everywhere is a ceiling with a queue behind it. What a company recovers turns on how high the ceiling is and who is ahead of it in the queue, and in Paraguay the answers are a multiple of the wage and the state pension institute. Both are published, and the sum can be done today rather than on the morning a bank is dissolved.

The cheaper lesson is the second one. Because cover applies at each bank separately, the risk a company cannot insure against is the habit of keeping everything in one operating account at one institution. Opening a second account elsewhere is the only thing that changes that, and it has to be done while both banks are still open.

Caribbean firms already know what it costs when banking access narrows. This newspaper has reported banks charging the dearest rate of any remittance channel as correspondent relationships were cut, and Trinidad's Eximbank screening documents against a US$555 million foreign exchange allocation. A dissolution asks the same question from the other end.

The entities

• ueno bank is the Paraguayan lender placed on 2 November 2026, the country's fifth-largest private bank with about three million clients.
• Banco Central del Paraguay (BCP) is the central bank that closed it and administers the guarantee fund.
• Fondo de Garantía de Depósitos (FGD) is the deposit guarantee fund created by Ley 2.334/03.
• Ley 2.334/03 is the statute governing deposit guarantee and the resolution of financial intermediation entities.
• Instituto de Previsión Social (IPS) is Paraguay's social security institute, paid first among depositors above the guarantee ceiling.
• Carlos Carvallo is the president of the Banco Central del Paraguay who put his position at the disposal of the Senate.
• Liana Caballero is the interim president of the Banco Central del Paraguay.
• Federico Miguel Vazquez Villasanti is the ueno bank director who surrendered to police on 3 November 2026.
• Santiago Peña is the President of Paraguay, who asked for Carvallo's resignation.
• Cámara de Diputados is the chamber now holding the bill on 24-hour payment.

What the title card says

• Headline: Paraguay dissolved its fifth-largest bank, cover stops at G.228,300,000 a depositor, and above that the state pension fund is paid first.
• Deposit guarantee ceiling: 75 times the monthly minimum wage, which is G.228,300,000, about US$38,600, from 1 July 2026.
• Minimum wage the ceiling is calculated from: G.3,044,000 a month.
• Date the central bank board voted to close the bank: 2 November 2026, unanimously.
• First statutory deadline to pay the guarantee: 17 November 2026, extendable to 2 December.
• Solvency trigger: the ratio fell below 50 per cent of the required minimum.
• Clients affected: about 3 million.
• Instituto de Previsión Social money in the bank: about US$380 million.
• Savings accounts estimated fully covered: about 97 per cent.
• Proposed 24-hour advance, passed by the Senate and not yet law: 40 times the minimum wage, about G.121,760,000 or US$20,600.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much of a deposit at ueno bank is guaranteed?

Up to 75 times the monthly minimum wage per depositor, per institution, which is G.228,300,000, or about US$38,600, from 1 July 2026, when Paraguay's general minimum wage rose to G.3,044,000 a month. Balances held in several accounts at the same bank are added together before the ceiling is applied.

What happens to deposits above the ceiling?

They are paid from what the liquidation of the bank's assets realises, in a statutory order. The Instituto de Previsión Social is paid first, followed by large depositors. The IPS has about US$380 million in the bank.

Why was the bank dissolved?

The Banco Central del Paraguay found its solvency ratio had fallen below 50 per cent of the required minimum. The board approved the resolution unanimously on 2 November 2026 and communicated it after 03:00 the following morning. The procedure runs under Ley 2.334/03.

When must the guarantee be paid?

Within 15 days of the decision, which falls on Tuesday 17 November 2026, and the law allows an extension of a further 15 days to 2 December. The central bank has authorised a first payment of up to G.10,000,000 ahead of that.

Will depositors be paid within 24 hours?

Not yet. Paraguay's Senate has approved a bill allowing the fund to pay up to 40 times the minimum wage, about G.121,760,000 or US$20,600, within 24 hours of a resolution, against a current window of 15 days extendable by another 15. The bill has gone to the Cámara de Diputados and is not promulgated. It is a payment on account and does not raise the total guarantee.

Does having a loan from the bank reduce what a depositor recovers?

Only to the extent of overdue instalments, which are deducted. The full outstanding balance of the loan is not set against the deposit.