Paraguayan President Santiago Pena resigned Thursday after the collapse of digital lender ueno left roughly 3 million customers unable to access their accounts, amid mounting pressure from opposition lawmakers and protesters.
Pena announced his departure in a video address, saying he acted "with the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions in mind." Vice President Pedro Alliana will take office as his replacement.
The opposition had called an extraordinary congressional session to begin impeachment proceedings against Pena. Lawmakers accused him of conflicts of interest, misuse of pension funds and institutional cover-ups tied to ueno's collapse. The bank had grown from a niche fintech player into a mid-tier lender administering close to $850 million in public funds before Paraguay's central bank intervened after determining it breached minimum solvency requirements.
Al Jazeera's Latin America editor Lucia Newman said Pena "is accused of negligence at the very least and complicity in covering up the fact that the bank was insolvent." She added that some protesters outside Congress urged lawmakers not to accept Pena's resignation, demanding instead that he face trial and impeachment.
Pena lost backing from members of his own conservative party on Thursday. In his address, he stated his greatest wish was that "the return of those funds be guaranteed, that the deposit guarantee fund fulfill its purpose, and that public funds be protected."
Ueno has made no public statement on the collapse.