Paraguay
A BNF loan to Itti was backed by properties from linked firms, according to ABC
ABC Color reported that Banco Nacional de Fomento granted Itti a G. 62 billion loan backed by 14 properties that were not in the company’s name. The file also included technical warnings, different appraisals and a later change to the collateral.
According to ABC Color, Banco Nacional de Fomento granted on July 27, 2023 a G. 62 billion loan to Itti, a company of Grupo Vázquez SAE chaired by Federico Miguel Vázquez, backed by a real estate trust made up of 14 properties.
According to that outlet, none of those properties were registered in Itti’s name. Three properties belonged to Credicentro, later transformed into Ueno Holding SAECA; one to Electrolar; one to Pasfin; and nine to Ueno Bank, formerly Financiera Ueno and Financiera El Comercio. The assets were distributed in Los Cedrales, Asunción, Santa Rosa del Monday, Altos, Liberación, Caazapá, Pedro Juan Caballero and Itacurubí del Rosario.
ABC reported that on October 9, 2023 the BNF commercial area prepared a technical report that recorded a warning from the Property Valuation Division about a property located in Limpio, due to the risk of devaluation in the event of a possible quarry operation. In that same document, always according to the newspaper, it was recalled that the state-owned bank maintained the criterion of not accepting properties of that type because of depreciation precedents.
Even so, the BNF Board approved on October 11, 2023 the modification of the collateral conditions. ABC added that the file contained two different valuations of the 14 properties: G. 28.985 billion according to the BNF Property Valuation Division and G. 55.251 billion according to an appraiser from the fiduciary Finexpar SAECA, now Zeta Banco.
Faced with that difference, the commercial area proposed reducing the required autonomous estate to G. 55.251 billion and conditioning the second disbursement to a cap of G. 16.289 billion, until more properties were added. That same October 11, ABC added, the BNF approved that proposal and exempted the borrower from paying G. 62 million in administrative expenses.
The outlet explained that the modification responded to the fact that the value of the assets presented did not reach the amount required in July 2023 to access the full loan, since at that time it was necessary to set up a trust for G. 88.572 billion.
ABC also linked this case to an information request promoted by the Senate and sent to the Central Bank of Paraguay regarding operations between companies linked to Grupo Vázquez and Ueno Bank. That request, based on a memorandum from the Supervision Management dated July 10, 2026, also inquires about an operation for US$ 35 million and G. 36.900 billion intended, according to the newspaper, to regularize excesses in credit limits to companies linked to the group.
Among other points, the questionnaire requests data on an alleged sale of nonperforming loans from Ueno Bank to Vinanzas SA for more than US$ 35 million and G. 36.900 billion, and on the traceability of the funds. ABC indicated that, by following the origin of the money with which Vinanzas SA would have acquired that portfolio, BCP supervision identified the issuance and placement of bonds from Itti SAE and Grupo Vázquez SAE, acquired by Technoma SA and Factopar SA, also linked to the conglomerate.
According to the newspaper, the BCP will have to rule on whether that operation was a cash sale with effective transfer of risk or whether it could be classified as an indirect financing prohibited by current regulations.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not do its own reporting on this fact.
