Paraguay President Santiago Peña Resigns Amid Ueno Bank Collapse as Impeachment Trial Opens
President Santiago Peña of Paraguay — Image via Wikimedia Commons (public domain) Paraguayan President Santiago Peña has announced his resignation amid a deepening political and financial crisis triggered by the collapse of digital lender Ueno Bank, which left millions of customers unable to access their money. Peña announced his decision on Thursday, November 5, in a video posted on social media, saying he was stepping down to preserve the country's stability, social peace and democratic institutions. How the crisis unfolded Paraguay's central bank intervened in Ueno Bank earlier in the week after finding that its solvency ratio had fallen to 5.56% — less than half of the 12% regulatory minimum. The intervention froze the accounts of around 3 million customers in a country of about 6.5 million people, leaving depositors, pensioners and workers unable to reach their savings. Authorities detained eight Ueno Bank executives on November 3, including the president of the ban...