New guidelines expose how banks and financial institutions have been operating with impunity
By The Seychelles Times
The Central Bank of Seychelles has issued landmark new guidelines targeting unfair contract terms in financial services — an acknowledgement, reading between the lines, that banks and financial service providers in Seychelles have for years been operating with contractual clauses that disadvantage ordinary consumers.
The guidelines, approved by the CBS board and issued on May 4, 2026, will officially come into force on November 4, 2026, giving financial service providers a six-month window to bring their contracts into compliance.
What Has Been Allowed Until Now?
The new framework identifies automatically unfair terms that will no longer be valid — including clauses that deny consumers the right to file a complaint, and fees that are not permitted by law. That such terms existed in contracts at all is worth pausing on. These are not hypothetical abuses — the CBS has observed them in the marketplace.
A new Fairness Test will assess other potentially problematic terms, including clauses that place excessive risk on consumers when the financial institution is better placed to manage it, unreasonable early termination fees, and provisions allowing interest rate changes without proper notice.
The Fine Print That Cost You Money
For the average Seychellois navigating a home loan, a personal credit agreement, or an insurance policy, these reforms could be significant. The guidelines introduce principles of transparency, mutual benefit, and proportionality as benchmarks — concepts that many would argue should have been enshrined long ago.
CBS has pledged to monitor compliance and take regulatory action where violations are found, including requiring amendment or removal of offending terms.
Critics will note that the guidelines arrive years after the Financial Consumer Protection Act of 2022 — raising the question of why implementation has taken this long. Financial institutions will not be rushing to celebrate; the six-month transition period suggests the changes required are substantial.
For consumers, the message is clear: read your contracts carefully before November, and know that protections are coming — even if they are long overdue.
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