BANK LICENCE STORY DARKENS
While Intershore Banking Corporation is battling a court case
to reverse the decision of the Central Bank to refuse a banking licence to the
company for the reason that the Central Bank believes that the Beneficial Owner
and Board of Directors lack integrity, the Central Bank has been dishing out
licences to other companies which appears insulting to the all Seychellois
Intershore Banking Corporation.
It will be recalled that the beneficial owner of Intershore Banking
Corporation is Philippe Boullé, who is also Charmian of the company and is a
lawyer and former Chairman of Barclays Bank, and the other Directors are Ahmed
Afif, an economist and former Principal Secretary for Finance and former
Director of Nouvobanq, Mr Bernard Pool a senior Chartered Accountant and
Auditor, Mr Ayub Suleman, a prominent businessman and Mr Steve Lalande, until
recently the CEO of Lungos.
After refusing to grant Intershore Banking Corporation a
licence, the Central Bank proceeded to grant a licence to the Bank of Ceylon
under controversial circumstances and soon after it was revealed in the media
that the Bank of Ceylon had failed to obtain the required permission from the
Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
It has been brought to attention that a couple of months ago, through a
publication in the Gazette that a banking licence has been granted to a company
named NIBUR International Ltd and records at the Registrar of Companies reveal
that the shareholders are Mrs Danielle Chang Leng, wife of the former Governor
of the Central Bank (85% shareholding), Mr Peter Tankov, and Mr Silvan Hurlimann,
(joint owners of 15% shareholding) and the Directors are the same persons as
the shareholders.
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| The Puppet Governor and Chairman of the Seychelles Central bank |
While it is common
practise for the Seychelles people to be taken for fools, one hopes that
Mrs Caroline Abel (Governor and Chairman) and the other members of the Board,
namely, Mr Ronny Govinden, Mr Wilfred Jackson, Mr Errol Dias, Mr Bertrand
Rassool, Mrs Wendy Pierre, who are responsible for granting banking licence
will have a good explanation when the time comes for transparency, accountability
and integrity in this country.
