Paraguay’s Senate opened an impeachment trial against President Santiago Peña on Thursday, Nov. 5, after the collapse of Ueno Bank left customers unable to access their money and prompted scrutiny of the government’s oversight of the lender. Peña offered to resign earlier in the day, but a joint session of Congress did not act on his resignation, and senators proceeded with the case.

Senate President Basilio Núñez summoned Peña to present his defense at 10 a.m. local time Friday, according to ABC Color. The hearing will take place as Paraguay’s central bank starts making deposit guarantee payments. For customers with frozen accounts, that process matters independently of whether the Senate removes Peña.

A resignation offer did not end the case

The lower house voted 78–0 to accuse Peña, sending the matter to the Senate. A separate joint session called to consider his resignation failed to reach a quorum, La Nación reported. Senators then convened as a trial body and heard the lawmakers appointed to present the accusations. The two steps explain why Peña’s public announcement that he intended to leave did not settle who held the presidency.

Under Paraguay’s national constitution, the Chamber of Deputies brings the accusation and the Senate judges it in a public trial. Removal requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate. That proceeding determines whether a person should remain in office. Alleged crimes are a separate matter for the ordinary courts.

The vice president remains in line

Lawmakers also considered an accusation against Vice President Pedro Alliana. The lower house said 30 deputies supported putting him on trial and 48 opposed it, falling short of the required two-thirds majority. The chamber shelved the measure. Alliana remains in line to take over if the presidency becomes vacant; the vote on his own case did not transfer power to him.

The distinction matters because the Senate still had to hear Peña’s defense and decide whether to remove him. The Associated Press reported that opposition senators argued against accepting his resignation in part because they believed it could preserve his eligibility for a lifetime Senate seat and the protections that go with it. That is their argument for pursuing removal; it is separate from the evidence about how Ueno failed.

Why regulators intervened

Paraguay’s central bank said its board voted Nov. 2 to begin resolving Ueno after adjustments to the lender’s financial statements showed that its solvency ratio was below half the required minimum. The regulator’s notice establishes the reason it gave for intervening. The finding does not by itself establish who caused the shortfall or whether any public official broke the law.

Ueno’s app, cards and transfers stopped working as the intervention cut off normal banking services, AP reported. The impact extended beyond personal savings because public institutions also held money at the lender. Paraguay’s attorney general ordered inquiries into supervision of the bank, the handling of its collapse and the placement of public funds there, according to the prosecutor’s office as reported by AP. Peña said he would cooperate with investigators. The opening of those inquiries does not establish criminal liability.

The bank’s reach helps explain why a solvency problem became a political crisis. Reuters reported that Ueno served roughly 3 million customers in a country of about 6.5 million people and administered hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds. AP also reported substantial public deposits, including money from the state pension and health fund. Those balances put public institutions among the parties with a stake in the resolution, alongside people who used the bank for everyday payments.

Reuters reported that Peña denied wrongdoing and said he sold his stake in a business group linked to the lender in March 2025. He also said he would appear before the Senate to defend himself and called for customers to regain access to their money quickly.

Deposit payments begin in stages

The central bank’s Nov. 5 payment notice said the first group includes customers with deposits of up to 10 million guaraníes. The regulator had previously said the legal guarantee extends up to the equivalent of 75 monthly minimum wages per person or legal entity at each financial institution, subject to the applicable rules. The initial payment threshold and the overall guarantee limit describe different parts of the process.

For a household that used Ueno for wages or routine purchases, the immediate issue is when funds become accessible and through which bank. For customers with larger balances, the first payment announcement gives less information about when the rest of their eligible funds will become available. Regulators will also have to account for what remains outside the guarantee as they resolve the bank.

Friday’s Senate hearing could clarify Peña’s political future. The banking response will have a different test: whether depositors actually receive the funds the central bank says it will release. A decision in Congress could establish who leads the government, but it would not reopen Ueno or resolve the questions prosecutors have begun examining.