95 Percent of Savers, 27 Percent of the Money: What Paraguay's Deposit Guarantee Actually Covers
95 Percent of Savers, 27 Percent of the Money: What Paraguay's Deposit Guarantee Actually Covers
On Tuesday, Paraguay's new president Pedro Alliana said that nearly 95 percent of ueno bank's savers had recovered their money. The central bank put it at 1,738,804 depositors, 93.1 percent, around 340 million dollars paid out.
On Wednesday, José Maciel, who runs the deposit guarantee fund, told local press that the fund expects to cover about 27 percent of ueno's deposits. Roughly 740 million dollars against a deposit base of about 2,800 million.
Nobody is lying. One number counts people and the other counts money, and the distance between them is the single most useful thing a foreigner with a Paraguayan bank account can understand right now.
Why both numbers are right
Paraguay's deposit guarantee is capped per depositor at 75 minimum salaries. At the minimum salary of 3,044,000 guaraníes, in force since 1 July 2026, that is about 228.3 million guaraníes. In dollars it lands somewhere between 36,000 and 37,000 depending on which day's rate you use, and the fact that we cannot give you one figure is itself part of this story.
That cap does two things at once.
Almost everyone with an ordinary current account or modest savings sits well under it, so they get everything back. That is the 93 to 95 percent, and it is a real achievement delivered in about a week.
Anyone above it gets the cap and no more, and because a small number of large balances hold most of the money, the share of deposits covered collapses to around a quarter. Roughly 2,000 million dollars still has no repayment date. Much of that is institutional rather than private: the social security institute IPS had about 355 million dollars at the bank, and Itaipú, Yacyretá and various pension funds were also exposed. Prosecutors have provisionally identified around 815 million dollars of state and pension money in the bank, which is an exposure figure and not a proven loss.
About 128,000 accounts are still pending, mostly blocked accounts, savings certificates, and operations tied to the Agencia Financiera de Desarrollo.
The part that matters more to you than the percentages
Here is the detail that most coverage has treated as a footnote and that we think is the actual headline for anyone moving money into Paraguay.
Dollar deposits are being repaid in guaraníes. Not in dollars. The conversion uses the exchange rate from 2 November 2026, the day ueno was resolved. This follows Law 2334/03, which governs the guarantee fund and bank resolution, and it is the law working exactly as drafted rather than anything improvised.
The guaraní has fallen more than 10 percent since 2 November. So a saver who deposited dollars receives guaraníes that, converted back today, buy noticeably fewer dollars than they started with. For depositors with larger balances, advances of up to 20,000 dollars began on Monday, with overdue loan instalments deducted.
There is a second-order problem the central bank is managing carefully. If a large number of people take their guaraníes and immediately buy dollars with them, that is fresh demand for foreign currency in a market that has just had a bad fortnight. Returning people's savings without triggering another run on the currency is a genuinely difficult piece of sequencing.
What this does and does not tell you
It would be easy to write this as either reassurance or alarm. Neither is honest.
What went right. The guarantee existed, it was funded, and it paid out to nearly every small depositor within about a week of a bank with more than two million customers being closed. A reform passed through Congress during the crisis to allow a 24 hour advance. The banking association and the central bank both say the rest of the system holds adequate solvency and liquidity, and the feared domino effect did not happen. By the standards of bank failures, this was handled briskly.
What the episode exposed. A per-depositor cap that is generous for ordinary savers and thin for anyone holding what a relocating family might actually move. A currency rule that does not preserve the denomination you deposited in. And an institutional exposure, especially the pension money, whose consequences will take far longer to work through than the queue at the counter.
For completeness: the political side resolved quickly and dramatically. On the evening of 6 November the Senate removed President Peña by 44 votes for poor performance in office, Pedro Alliana was sworn in to complete the 2023 to 2028 term, and police placed Peña under detention at his home on a prosecutor's order. The accusations against him have not been established in court and should not be read as findings. We covered that separately.
What we would actually tell a client
We are not financial advisers and this is not advice on where to put your money. What follows is what the rules say, which is a different thing.
Know what the cap is in your own terms. Seventy five minimum salaries is a moving figure, because the minimum salary moves. Converted to euros it is a figure most relocating households would exceed on a property deposit alone.
Understand that currency is not preserved. If you hold dollars or euros in a Paraguayan account and that institution is resolved, the guarantee pays guaraníes at the resolution date rate. That is a specific, knowable risk rather than a vague one, and it is the kind of thing worth asking a qualified adviser about before rather than after.
Spreading matters more than it looks. The cap is per depositor per institution. That arithmetic is the same everywhere deposit insurance exists and is not a Paraguay quirk.
Do not read one bad fortnight as the whole country. Paraguay's banking system did not collapse. One large institution failed, apparently for reasons specific to it, and the guarantee machinery worked for the people it was designed to protect.
None of this touches residency. The requirements, the categories and the documents are unchanged, and nothing reported suggests Migraciones has been affected. If you are mid-application, this is a story about banks and not about your file.
The honest caveat
This article is dated 11 November 2026 and the payout is still running. The guarantee fund's own coverage estimate may move as the remaining accounts are worked through. Figures here come from the Banco Central del Paraguay, from the head of the guarantee fund as reported in Paraguayan and regional press, and from President Alliana's own statements.
If you want to think through what your own banking arrangements should look like, we can tell you what the rules are and point you at someone qualified for the rest. Contact us, or start with our free emigration check.
Paraguay Compass is a relocation and residency consultancy, not a financial, legal or investment adviser. Nothing here is advice on banking, deposits or currency. Allegations described in this article are allegations and have not been established in court.
Frequently asked questions
Were ueno savers made whole?
Most people were, most money was not. About 1.74 million depositors, roughly 93 to 95 percent of those covered, received around 340 million dollars. But cover is capped per depositor, so the fund expects to reach about 27 percent of the bank's roughly 2,800 million dollars in deposits. Both statements describe the same payout from different ends.
What is the deposit guarantee limit in Paraguay?
Seventy five minimum salaries per depositor under Law 2334/03. At the minimum salary of 3,044,000 guaraníes, in force since 1 July 2026, that is about 228.3 million guaraníes, somewhere around 36,000 to 37,000 dollars depending on the rate you convert at. The limit is per depositor at that institution, not per account.
What happens to dollars held in a Paraguayan bank that fails?
They are repaid in guaraníes, not dollars, at the exchange rate on the day the bank was resolved. In ueno's case that is 2 November 2026. Because the guaraní has fallen more than 10 percent since, a depositor who held dollars receives guaraníes worth noticeably less than the dollars they deposited. This is the law operating as written, not a failure of it.
Does this mean I should not bank in Paraguay?
That is your decision and, for significant sums, one for a qualified adviser rather than us. What the episode shows is that the guarantee exists and paid out quickly for small balances, that the cap binds hard above a certain size, and that currency denomination is not preserved through a resolution. Those are facts worth knowing wherever you bank.
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