Money in Swiss banks: India slips one place to 74th, UK retains top rank

India has moved down one place to 74th rank in terms of money parked by its citizens and enterprises with Swiss banks, while the UK has retained its top position, as per data released by the central banking authority of the Alpine nation.
India was ranked 73rd last year, after jumping 15 places from its 88th position a year ago.

An analysis of the latest annual banking statistics released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) shows that India remains ranked very low when it comes to money parked by Indian individuals and enterprises in Swiss banks, including through their India-based branches, while accounting for just about 0.07 per cent of the aggregate funds parked by all foreign clients of Switzerland-based banks.
In comparison, the top-ranked UK accounted for more than 26 per cent of the total foreign funds parked with Swiss banks at the end of 2018.
Among the top-ranked jurisdictions, the UK is followed by the US, West Indies, France and Hong Kong in the top five.
The top-five countries alone account for more than 50 per cent of the aggregate foreign funds parked with the Swiss banks, while the top-10 account for nearly two-thirds.
The top-15 countries account for nearly 75 per cent of all foreign money in Swiss banks, while the contribution of the top-30 is almost 90 per cent.
The top-10 countries also include Bahamas, Germany, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands and Singapore.
Among the five-nation BRICS block of emerging economies, India is ranked the lowest while Russia is ranked the highest at 20th place, followed by China at 22nd, South Africa at 60th and Brazil at 65th place in terms of amount of money parked by their residents and enterprises at the end of 2018.
The countries ranked higher than India also include Mauritius (71st), New Zealand (59th), the Philippines (54th), Venezuela (53rd), Seychelles (52nd), Thailand (39th), Canada (36th), Turkey (30th), Israel (28th), Saudi Arabia (21st), Panama (18th), Japan (16th), Italy (15th), Australia (13th), UAE (12th) and Guernsey (11th).
However, several of India's neighbouring nations are ranked lower, with Pakistan ranking 82nd, Bangladesh 89th, Nepal 109th, Sri Lanka 141st, Myanmar 187th and Bhutan 193rd.
This is the first time in the last four years that the funds linked to Pakistan in Swiss banks have slipped below that of Indians.
A number of other major countries also saw their funds falling in Swiss banks amid a global clampdown against the erstwhile banking secrecy walls in the Alpine nation.
The funds, described by SNB as 'liabilities' of Swiss banks or 'amounts due to' their clients, are official figures disclosed by Swiss authorities and do not indicate the exact quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held in famed safe havens of Switzerland.
The official figures, disclosed annually by Switzerland's central bank, also do not include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in the names of entities from different countries.
It has been often alleged that Indians and other nationals seeking to stash their illicit wealth abroad use multiple layers of various jurisdictions, including tax havens, to shift the money to Swiss banks.
Also, with Switzerland putting in place an automatic information exchange framework with India and various other countries, the famed secrecy walls of Swiss banks are said to have crumbled. India will start getting this automatic data from this year, while it has already been getting information on accounts where proof of illicit funds can be furnished.
The funds officially held by Indians with banks in Switzerland now accounts for only 0.07 per cent of the total funds kept by all foreign clients in the Swiss banking system, almost same as the level seen at 2017-end after a modest increase from 0.04 per cent a year before that, as per an analysis of the latest figures compiled by the SNB (Swiss National Bank) as on 2018-end.
India was placed at 75th position in 2015 and 61st in the year before, though it used to be among the top-50 countries in terms of holdings in Swiss banks till 2007. The country was ranked highest at 37th place in the year 2004.
The total money held in Swiss banks by foreign clients from across the world fell by about 4 per cent to CHF 1.4 trillion (about Rs 99 lakh crore) in 2018.
In terms of individual countries, the UK continues to account for the largest chunk at about CHF 372 billion (down from CHF 403 billion a year ago), which remains more than 26 per cent of the total foreign money with Swiss banks.
The US remains on the second position despite a dip to about CHF 144 billion (from CHF 166 billion a year ago), accounting for nearly 10.3 per cent of all foreign funds. The share is more than 1 per cent only for 21 jurisdictions.
India was ranked in the top-50 continuously between 1996 and 2007, but its rank started declining after that -- 55th in 2008, 59th in 2009 and 2010 each, 55th again in 2011, 71st in 2012 and then to 58th in 2013.
Money parked by Indian clients fell by nearly 6 per cent in 2018 to 955 million Swiss francs (about Rs 6,757 crore) to hit its second-lowest level in over two decades.

Rs 3 bn lying unclaimed in India-linked dormant accounts in Swiss banks

It is the third year since Swiss banks made public a list of accounts lying dormant without any trace of owners and no claimant has come forward for those with Indian links, even as a political slugfest continues in India over alleged black money parked there.
The list of all such accounts -- of Swiss citizens and foreigners including from India -- was first published by the Switzerland Banking Ombudsman in December 2015 and it keeps getting updated as and when an account is declared dormant.

This is to allow real owners of the accounts or their legal heirs to stake a claim with necessary proof.
The details get deleted from the list when a successful claim is made and this was the case for as many as 40 accounts and two safe deposit boxes in the year 2017 itself, as per the latest information shared by the Ombudsman.
However, the list of over 3,500 such accounts continues to have at least six with links to India since December 2015, as no successful claimant has come forward for them.
Switzerland was perceived to be among the safest havens globally for financial assets for many years before a global crackdown on alleged tax evasion by using such strong banking privacy practices as prevalent in Swiss banks led to Switzerland agreeing to tighten its rules.
Subsequently, Switzerland has framed new laws for greater cooperation with several other countries on exchange of information and for stricter clampdown on illicit activities like money laundering and tax frauds.
India is one of the countries with which Switzerland has inked an automatic exchange of information pact on financial matters, while the Alpine nation has already been providing details on bank accounts in cases where Indian authorities have been able to provide proof of wrongdoings.
As per the latest data released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB), funds parked by Indians with Swiss banks rose 50 per cent to CHF 1.01 billion (about Rs 70 billion) in 2017.
The funds, described by SNB as 'liabilities' of Swiss banks or 'amounts due to' their clients, are official figures disclosed by Swiss authorities and do not indicate to the exact quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held in the famed safe havens of Switzerland.
The official figures, disclosed annually by Switzerland's central bank, also do not include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in the names of entities from different countries.
It has been often alleged that Indians and other nationals seeking to stash their illicit wealth abroad use multiple layers of various jurisdictions, including tax havens, to shift the money in Swiss banks.
Also, with Switzerland putting in place an automatic information exchange framework with India and various other countries, the famed secrecy walls of Swiss banks are said to have crumbled. India will start getting this automatic data from next year.
However, the increase in Indians' money in Swiss banks has already triggered a sharp opposition attack on the government, which in turn has said that it would be wrong to assume that all funds deposited in Swiss banks were 'black money' and strong action would be taken against wrongdoers.
The funds officially held by Indians with banks in Switzerland accounts for only 0.07 per cent of the total funds kept by all foreign clients in the Swiss banking system, as per the SNB data.
In terms of the dormant accounts, at least three individuals from India and three others of Indian origin -- but resident of other countries -- continue to figure on the list of unclaimed bank accounts made public by Switzerland since December 2015.
While specific figure for India-linked dormant accounts is not known, the total holding in all such accounts is estimated at about 44 million Swiss franc (about Rs 3 billion).
Of the six with Indian links, place of residence of three has been mentioned as India, while it is Paris (France) for one and London for another. The place of residence for the sixth person was not disclosed.
These are Pierre Vachek and Bernet Rosmarie from 'Bombay', the earlier name of Mumbai, Bahadur Chandra Singh from Dehradun, Dr Mohan Lal from Paris, Suchah Yogesch Prabhudas from London. Kishore Lall is the person whose place of residence was not disclosed.
The date of birth has also been disclosed in one case that is for Vachek as January 1, 1908.
All these accounts were added to the public list in December 2015 and would remain there till December 2020, unless a successful claim is made for the money.
There are also some such accounts from Pakistan, including of one Nawaz Haq of Wazirabad, which was added to the list in November last year.
The list is aimed at giving their owners or their legal heirs a chance to claim the funds in these accounts. Only those accounts form part of the list which have got at least 500 Swiss francs and have remained unclaimed for at least 60 years.
The list contains a large number of people from Switzerland itself, as also from Germany, France, the UK, the US, Turkey, Austria and various other countries.
If no legitimate party claims the assets that have been published within one year of publication, the banks can transfer the assets in question to the government.
The claim deadline for potential legitimate claimants is five years if the assets in question have been dormant since at least 1954.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Money held by Indians in Swiss banks rises 50% in 2017 to over Rs 70 bn

Money parked by Indians in Swiss banks rose over 50 per cent to CHF 1.01 billion (Rs 70 billion) in 2017, reversing a three-year downward trend amid India's clampdown on suspected black money stashed there.
In comparison, the total funds held by all foreign clients of Swiss banks rose about 3 per cent to CHF 1.46 trillion or about Rs 100 trillion in 2017, according to the official annual data released today by Swiss National Bank (SNB), the central banking authority of the Alpine nation.

The surge in Indian money held with Swiss banks comes as a surprise given India's continuing clampdown on suspected black money stashed abroad, including in banks of Switzerland that used to be known for their famed secrecy walls for years.
The Indian money in Swiss banks had fallen by 45 per cent in 2016, marking their biggest ever yearly plunge, to CHF 676 million (about Rs 45 billion) — the lowest ever since the European nation began making the data public in 1987.
According to the SNB data, the total funds held by Indians directly with Swiss banks rose to 999 million Swiss franc (Rs 68.91 billion) in 2017, while the same held through fiduciaries or wealth managers increased to CHF 16.2 million (Rs 1.12 billion). These figures stood at CHF 664.8 million and CHF 11 million, respectively, at the end of 2016.
As per the latest data, the Indian money in Swiss banks included CHF 464 million (Rs 32 billion) in the form of customer deposits, CHF 152 million (Rs 10.50 billion) through other banks and CHF 383 million (Rs 26.40 billion) as 'other liabilities' such as securities at the end of 2017.
The funds under all three heads have risen sharply, as against a huge plunge across all categories in the previous year, the SNB data showed.
The funds held through fiduciaries alone used to be in billions till 2007 but began falling after that amid fears of regulatory crackdown.
The total funds held by Indians with Swiss banks stood at a record high of CHF 6.5 billion (Rs 230 billion) at 2006-end, but came down to nearly one-tenth of that level in about a decade.
Since those record levels, this is only the third time when there has been a rise in Indians' money in Swiss banks -- in 2011 (12 per cent), 2013 (43 per cent) and now in 2017 by 50.2 per cent -- the maximum increase since 56 per cent way back in 2004.
The latest data from Zurich-based SNB comes months after a new framework having been put in place for automatic exchange of information between Switzerland and India to help check the black money menace.
While Switzerland has already begun sharing foreign client details on evidence of wrongdoing provided by India and some other countries, it has agreed to further expand its cooperation on India's fight against black money with a new pact for automatic information exchange.
There were several rounds of discussions between Indian and Swiss government officials on the new framework and also for expediting the pending information requests about suspected illicit accounts of Indians in Swiss banks.
The funds, described by SNB as 'liabilities' of Swiss banks or 'amounts due to' their clients, are the official figures disclosed by the Swiss authorities and do not indicate to the quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held by Indians there.
SNB's official figures also do not include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in the names of entities from different countries.
Amid a decline seen in Indian money over the previous three years, there was a view that Indians who had allegedly parked their illicit money in Swiss banks in the past may have shifted the funds to other locations after a global crackdown began on the mighty banking secrecy practices in Switzerland.
Swiss banks have earlier said Indians have "few deposits" in Swiss banks compared to other global financial hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong amid stepped-up efforts to check the black money menace.
On directions of the Supreme Court, India had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe cases of alleged black money of Indians, including funds stashed abroad in places like Switzerland.
A number of strategies were deployed by the government to combat the stash-funds menace, in both overseas and domestic domain, which included enactment of a new law, amendments in the Anti-Money Laundering Act and compliance windows for people to declare their hidden assets.
The Tax department had detected suspected black money running into thousands of crores of rupees post investigations on global leaks about Indians stashing funds abroad and has launched prosecution against hundreds of them, including those with accounts in the Geneva branch of HSBC.
The issue of black money has always been a matter of big debate in India and Switzerland has been long perceived as one of the safest havens for such funds.
Earlier in 2015, the money held by Indians in Swiss banks had fallen by nearly one-third to CHF 1,217.6 million (over Rs 80 billion). Prior to that, these funds fell by 10 per cent to CHF 1.8 billion in 2014, after a rise of 43 per cent in 2013 to CHF 2.03 billion.
The total assets of Swiss banks in India, however, fell by about 18 per cent in 2017 to CHF 3.2 billion in second consecutive year of decline. This does not include any tangible assets like real estate and properties.
The amount owed by Indian clients to Swiss banks fell by 48 per cent in 2017 to CHF 210 million.