Ueno Bank Collapse: How a solvency crisis froze savings for half of Paraguay
Election
Originally published by Kahawatungu — Read the original article →
On November 3, 2026, the Central Bank of Paraguay placed Ueno Bank—one of the country’s largest digital lenders—into resolution, shutting down its operations and freezing all customer accounts. The decision followed a severe deterioration in the bank’s solvency ratio, which had fallen below 50% of the legal minimum required by Paraguayan regulators. The central bank’s board voted unanimously to initiate the process, citing accounting adjustments that revealed a critical capital shortfall.
Ueno Bank served approximately 3 million customers, a figure equivalent to roughly 60% of Paraguay’s adult population. The bank also managed between $800 million and $850 million in public funds, including about $380 million from the Instituto de Previsión Social, the state pension fund that supports retirement and healthcare coverage for workers. As a result of the intervention, customers were immediately unable to access their money through the bank’s app, cards, or branches. The Central Bank of Paraguay confirmed that neither the app, nor the cards, nor any service was active as of the intervention date.
The collapse was triggered by a sudden drop in Ueno’s solvency ratio—a measure of a bank’s capital relative to its risk-weighted assets. As recently as March 2026, the bank had reported a capital ratio of 15.01% against a required minimum of 12%. However, subsequent adjustments to its financial statements during a regularization process pushed the ratio below half of the legal threshold, prompting the central bank to act. The central bank has characterized the case as isolated, noting that the broader Paraguayan financial system maintains a capital ratio of 16.95% and a delinquency rate of 2.53%.