Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies is expected to review a bill that would alter the rules governing investments by the Social Security Institute (IPS), the institution responsible for social security and public health. The proposal, amended by the Senate, could allow different financial products from the same institution to be counted separately.
The text began its legislative process on May 12 with a social-assistance objective: declaring an emergency at IPS for 12 months to speed up the purchase of medicines, repair the Central Hospital’s infrastructure and fix problems with its elevators. The Chamber approved the original version with 56 votes in favor, two abstentions and 22 absences.
After reaching the Senate on June 2, however, the initiative expanded from five to 20 articles and was renamed the bill declaring an emergency at IPS and establishing an extraordinary regime for financial restructuring and protecting the Sickness and Maternity Funds. The new version authorizes the assignment of employer-contribution flows, guarantee structures and the issuance of asset-backed securities.
The most controversial point is in Articles 17 and 18. According to the published description, they would provide for Savings Deposit Certificates (CDA) and securities from the same bank to be treated separately and independently. In practice, this could allow the 10% limit to be applied individually to each type of product, instead of considering IPS’s total exposure to the financial institution.
Law No. 7,235/2023 establishes that the pension fund’s resources deposited with a single entity may not exceed 10% of the managed portfolio. It also sets limits of 55% for banking instruments and 25% for securities. With a portfolio estimated at 19.6 trillion guaraníes, the ceiling per bank would be approximately 1.9 trillion guaraníes.
According to the sources, IPS investments in Ueno Bank reached 2.2 trillion guaraníes in November 2025. That amount is approximately 15.8% above the 1.9 trillion-guaraní ceiling and would represent about 11.41% of the portfolio, according to the calculation presented in the sources. The claim that IPS acknowledged exposure above the limit after a regulatory statement by the Superintendency of Retirement and Pensions requires independent confirmation. The available description of Article 18 is incomplete, so its details are not presented as definitively established.
The proposal returns to the Chamber for further consideration and was placed on the agenda of the Accounts and Oversight Committee, chaired by Representative César Cerini, for review at 8:30 a.m. The opinion is not binding, but it could pave the way for a special session.
Independent Representative Raúl Benítez criticized the change: “A law that was supposedly intended to buy medicines ended up becoming a law to make money.” This is a political allegation by the lawmaker, translated from statements reproduced in the sources, rather than an independently established fact. Daniel Centurión, leader of the dissident Colorado caucus, said he supports the Chamber’s original version and rejects the Senate’s amendments.
The sources also link the measure to a possible benefit for Ueno Bank, which is connected to Grupo Vázquez, described as a former business partner of President Santiago Peña. That relationship and the claim of a direct benefit have not been independently substantiated. According to the sources, the bank held more than 5.1 trillion guaraníes in public deposits by July, about US$862 million at that month’s exchange rate.