Paraguay’s Central Bank has partially returned savings to more than 1.7 million depositors who lost access to their money after the implosion of Ueno Bank last week.

The digital bank’s collapse locked hundreds of thousands of Paraguayans out of their accounts and led to the lightning-fast removal of president Santiago Pena from office over his links to the catastrophe.

Money is trickling back to some account holders, but most of what the institution’s coffers contained remains out of reach, including over $800 million in public funds.

Of the approximately $2.8 billion in deposits, only around $335 million had been returned as of Monday, according to official figures.

How much money is at stake, where did it go and what are Paraguayan authorities doing to get it back?

– How much money? –

In under three years, Ueno had accumulated deposits of around $2.8 billion, according to figures disclosed Tuesday by the Central Bank’s deposit guarantee fund director Jose Maciel.

Seventy-one percent of those deposits belonged to the private sector.

The remaining share belonged to the public sector, mainly the Social Security Institute , according to data published by Ueno in June.

Following the November 3 seizure of Ueno amid major solvency issues, the fate of the public funds hangs in the balance.

– What about reimbursements? –

The guarantee fund protects up to approximately $37,000 per depositor and banking institution at the current exchange rate.

An emergency law passed the Wednesday after Ueno’s demise authorized advance payments of up to about $19,000 within one week, and the rest the following week.

As of Monday, the Central Bank had disbursed about $335 million to just over 1.7 million depositors.

This amounts to 93.1 percent of those eligible for that phase of reimbursement, it said, although it does not mean that these people have recovered their savings in full.

Before its collapse, Ueno claimed to have more than three million customers, after its rapid growth made it one of the largest banks in the South American nation.

The Central Bank has identified 1,867,000 Ueno clients entitled to access the guarantee fund, its press office told AFP, without specifying how many people do not qualify.

– What about the rest? –

Maciel said the guarantee fund expects to return around $740 million dollars 27 percent of Ueno’s total deposits.

“The rest will have to wait for this bank resolution process,” he said during an interview on Tuesday.

Those accounts include companies, organizations, volunteer firefighters and public bodies such as the IPS or the national electricity grid operator.

They also include people who had invested money in mutual funds, who on Tuesday demanded “an official and immediate response regarding the current situation” of their deposits, according to a statement seen by AFP.

IPS investment director Hugo Diaz told the ABC outlet that his institution, which manages pensions and health plans for more than 1.5 million people, had around $516 million tied up in Ueno.

Like other large depositors, IPS will have to wait for both the transfer of assets and liabilities to other financial institutions and the reovery of Ueno’s loans before an eventual return.

“The recovery of pension funds will be prioritized,” Paraguay’s newly appointed President Pedro Alliana wrote Tuesday on X.

– Follow the money –

Paraguayan prosecutors said they were tracing deviated funds abroad and had asked several other countries for help.

Prosecutor Manuel Doldan told a Monday press conference they were in touch with authorites in the United States, Luxembourg and Argentina to identify assets belonging to the individuals and companies under investigation, including ex-president Pena.

That same day, they raided an Ueno branch and seized documents related to Pena’s investments, which prosecutors used to request the freezing of crypto assets in Luxembourg.

Authorities also raided two of the 47-year-old’s residences.

On Tuesday they managed to open a vault belonging to him, which turned out to be empty.

Prosecutors also seized documents on Monday at the home of Carlos Carvallo, the Central Bank chief who stepped down at Pena’s request after the collapse of Ueno, which he formerly chaired.

Both are being held in pretrial detention.

Pena, impeached on Friday, owned shares in Ueno’s holding company until he sold them last year.

He is accused of using his influence as president to steer millions in government deposits to Ueno and hiding or downplaying its financial woes despite warnings about questionable loans and solvency issues. He denies all charges.

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