THE Governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) Mr. Pierre Laporte has urged banks to re-look at the service, refrain from charging exorbitant commissions, fees, and penalties and to adjust their lending rates. At a meeting with the managers of Commercial Banks last Wednesday, Laporte said the CBS has received persistent and unacceptable complaints from clients about the hefty charges, commissions and interest rates. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently disclosed that Seychelles commercial banks were among the most profitable in the world. It appears that they are running a cartel, charging the same crushing rates, bordering on fraud.
CBS Governor Laporte said he was consulting the “Fair Trading Commission” to decide on measures to counter abuses by the banks.
Laporte said that while the CBS could not dictate bank rates, it could do something about the unfair charges and poor service in conjunction with the Fair Trading Commission.
He also said that more foreign commercial banks would be allowed to operate in Seychelles to provide healthier competition in the banking sector.
This includes institutions such as “micro credit”, which issues small loans at weak interest and is widely used in some parts of Africa and Asia. It also includes the Islamic Bank, which gives loans at no interest at all.

He also hinted that new legislation could be introduced to give the CBS a bigger say in banking rates.
It is not uncommon for banks to charge up to 15% on loans. Yet, they only offer 2% on savings, or sometimes none at all.
It has reached the stage, where most Seychellois keep money in the banks just to avoid falling prey to robbers and other shady characters.  The commercial banks are just involved in “lazy banking”, that is taking people's savings and purchasing bonds or bills to make quick profits. As most of the shareholders are foreign, that means fat profits made are saltered away to them overseas