Global networks on the way up and the way down: lessons from the rise and fall of the Seychelles as an offshore financial centre

Over the last two decades, the Seychelles quietly rose into the top echelon of the global offshore industry and then it experienced a sharp decline. Two different global networks contributed to this outcome. A global advisory network welcomed the Seychelles into its fold before a global banking network that controls access to US dollar transactions constricted its ties with the country. The larger significance is threefold. First, attention must be paid to global networks as both facilitating neoliberal globalization and as partially recoiling from it. Second, networks oriented around US dollar clearing banks and offshore advisers should be studied closely given the power that comes from their gatekeeper roles. Third, a development strategy founded on offshore business can run aground when faced with tightening global networks and a wavering domestic commitment. The result of these developments is a two-track offshore economy with a downward path in some jurisdictions but greater continuity in other parts of the offshore system.