SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Money held by Indians in Swiss banks has fallen by nearly one-third to a record low of 1.2 billion franc in the wake of continued scrutiny on the famed secrecy wall of the country’s banking system.
Funds held by Indians in Swiss banks fell by CHF 596.42 million to CHF 1,217.6 million at the end of 2015, according to the latest data released by the country’s central banking authority, the Swiss National Bank. That figure represents the lowest amount held by Indians in Alpine banks since the information first became public in 1997, and marks the second straight year of decline.
At the end of 2006, Indian funds stood at a record high of CHF 6.5 billion (Rs 23,000 crore).
By the end of 2015, the total amount held by Indians in Swiss banks stood directly at CHF 1,206.71 million, which was a decline from the CHF 1,776 million it stood at in 2014. The money held through fiduciaries or wealth managers was down at CHF 10.89 million, the lowest-ever level of funds held by fiduciaries, which at one point used to be in the billions. In 2007 the figures began declining because of regulatory crackdowns.
The total “amounts due to customers’ savings and deposit accounts” fell to CHF 425.8 million (from 1,378 million a year ago), while the money held through other banks incidentally more than doubled to CHF 270.4 million (from CHF 100.6 million).
The Zurich-based Swiss National Bank has agreed to further expand its cooperation on India’s fight against black money and expects to sign a new pact for automatic information exchange 2018 onwards.
