'New investments are on stand-by', says president of the Brazil-Paraguay Chamber of Commerce after crisis in the neighboring country

The unprecedented crisis in Paraguay not only affected the lives and finances of Paraguayans, but also brought insecurity to those doing business with the neighboring country. Since the beginning of the banking crisis involving the digital bank Ueno, there was the resignation of the president of the Country's Central Bank and later, the impeachment and arrest of the now former president Santiago Peña.

According to Roger Maciel, president of the Brazil-Paraguay Chamber of Commerce, there were no significant declines in investments already made in the country, but studies carried out by the entity into possible new investments by Brazilian companies were momentarily interrupted.

The Chamber of Commerce is an entity that promotes commercial relationships between Brazil and Paraguay, encouraging investments, partnerships and business opportunities.

"Those who have already made investments have not left their feet. Nobody is talking about going back or withdrawing, everything remains the same. What we had is stand-by in feasibility studies for new investments. We are waiting for definitions. This week everything stopped, and for another week it should remain stopped, but we hope that these investments that already have studies will be resumed", he assesses.

Peña was a shareholder in Grupo Vázquez, controlling bank Ueno, until March 2025. The then president of the Paraguayan Central Bank, Carlos Carvallo Spalding, had also commanded Ueno before taking public office.

The banking crisis led to comparisons between the Ueno crisis and that of the Master bank, in Brazil. Maciel assesses that the crisis at the Paraguayan bank must be much more devastating for that country than the Master frauds were for Brazil:

"It's a difference in proportion. Banco Master, despite having caused much greater damage, ends up being diluted in the Brazilian economy, which is much larger. Ueno is a smaller bank, the impact was smaller, but for the Paraguayan economy the impact is much greater".

Ueno, which belongs to the Vázquez Group, closed its doors on Tuesday (3), after the Central Bank began the process of liquidating the institution after identifying insufficient resources to cover the bank's obligations, related to loans granted to companies linked to the institution.

The bank had around 3 million customers and concentrated approximately US$850 million in public deposits, including resources from the Social Security Institute.

Possible resumption

According to Maciel, the crisis generated strong protests among the population, but the restitution of values for a large part of those affected cooled down the mobilizations.

"Chaos started on Tuesday, but it was diluted with Peña's dismissal, and the payments greatly eased the population's tension. There were a lot of people on the streets, the markets were empty, consumption of the Paraguayan movement dropped by 70%, but we see this recovery. On Saturday there was already a return to normality", he says.