Seychelles

Active marketChecked 2026-11-14 · confidence medium

Al Salam Bank Seychelles Limited, a subsidiary of Bahrain's Al Salam Bank, is on the Central Bank of Seychelles list of commercial banks. Its own website offers a Wakala Deposit Account and personal, property and auto finance that it describes as Sharia compliant (checked 14 Nov 2026).

Five checks

Banking rulesNot found

No Islamic banking law or Central Bank of Seychelles rule was found. The Financial Institutions Act, 2004 copy and the Central Bank of Seychelles Act (consolidated 2024) on the Central Bank website do not mention Islamic banking, and no Islamic regulation appears in its list of banking legislation and circulars. The 2020 Financial Institutions (Amendment) Act and Bill on the Official Gazette site do not mention it either, and a Gazette search for 'shariah' returned no results. A 2019 news report said Cabinet had approved an Islamic banking policy and strategy but the legal framework was not yet approved.

Licensed banks and windowsFound
Sukuk issuedNot checked
Takaful (non-interest insurance)Not checked

Not confirmed. The Financial Services Authority (insurance and securities regulator) site search returned an error, and its strategic plan documents do not mention takaful.

Capital market rulesNot checked

Not confirmed. The Financial Services Authority site search returned an error; its strategic plan documents do not mention Islamic or Shari'ah products.

Recent developments

  1. 2024-11-11A government order published the state guarantee of SCR 50 million borrowed by the Development Bank of Seychelles from Al Salam Bank Seychelles under an agreement of 15 October 2024. The order calls it a loan. source

Still open

Points we could not confirm at source yet.

  • Read the bank's product pages when they can be reached without a bot challenge, to confirm the products and how the bank describes them.
  • Find whether Seychelles has since adopted an Islamic banking legal framework (2019 report said it was pending).
  • Check the Financial Services Authority for takaful or Islamic fund rules, and the Ministry of Finance for sukuk.
Where we searched
  • Central Bank of Seychelles: commercial bank list (read from the data feed the public page loads, /Controller/getFinancialInstitution.jsp?type=bank institution; seven banks including Al Salam Bank Seychelles Limited); banking legislation and circular lists; Financial Institutions Act 2004, CBS Act 2004 (consolidated 2024), CBS (Amendment) Act 2024, Financial Stability Act 2023 and Single Licensing Guidelines 2019 grepped: no Islamic, Shari'ah or sukuk terms; Annual Report 2025 (172 pages): no mention of Al Salam, Islamic or sukuk
  • Al Salam Bank Seychelles own site (alsalamseychelles.com): every page, including wp-json and feed, returns an Imperva/Incapsula bot challenge; not bypassed. Only the XML sitemap (generated 14 Nov 2026) was readable; it lists pages for current, savings and wakala deposit accounts, auto, personal and property finance, profit rates and a Sharia Supervisory Board. WebFetch also returned empty content
  • Al Salam Bank B.S.C. (parent) FY2024 audited statements via Dubai Financial Market: name the 70% Seychelles subsidiary and say the group offers Shari'a-compliant products; alsalambank.com PDF links return a bot page
  • Financial Services Authority (fsaseychelles.sc): site search returned a server error; strategic plan PDFs grepped with no Islamic terms
  • Official Gazette (gazette.sc): S.I. 90 of 2024 read; Financial Institution (Amendment) Act 2020 and Financial Institutions (Amendment) Bill 2020 read (no Islamic terms); site search for shariah, sukuk and takaful 'yielded no results', and for islamic matched only a customs regulation naming the Islamic Republic of Comoros; National Assembly copy of CBS Annual Report 2025 read
  • seylii.org copy of the Financial Institutions Act returned 404