Money in Swiss banks
NEW DELHI/ZURICH, June 26: India has moved down three places to 77th rank in terms of money parked by its citizens and enterprises with Swiss banks at the end of 2019, while the UK has retained its top position, as per the latest data from Switzerland’s central bank.
India was ranked 74th in the previous year.
An analysis of the latest annual banking statistics released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) showed 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, accounting for just about 0.06 per cent of the aggregate funds parked by all foreign clients of Switzerland-based banks.
In comparison, the top-ranked UK accounted for close to 27 per cent of the total foreign funds parked with Swiss banks at the end of 2019.
According to the latest SNB data, funds parked by Indian individuals and enterprises in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches, fell by 5.8 per cent in 2019 to 899 million Swiss francs (Rs 6,625 crore).
The data is for ‘total liabilities’ of Swiss banks towards Indian clients takes into account all types of funds of Indian customers at Swiss banks, including deposits from individuals, banks and enterprises. This also includes data for branches of Swiss banks in India, as well as non-deposit liabilities.
These are official figures reported by banks to the SNB and do not indicate the quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held by Indians in Switzerland. These figures also do not include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in names of third-country entities.
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 Germany, Luxembourg, Bahamas, Singapore and Cayman Islands.
Only 22 jurisdictions have 1 per cent of more of the total foreign funds parked with Swiss banks and these include China, Jersey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Panama, Italy, Cyprus, UAE, Netherlands, Japan and Guernsey.
Among the five-nation BRICS block of emerging economies, India is ranked the lowest while Russia is ranked the highest at the 20th place (same as last year), followed by China at 22nd (same as 2018-end), South Africa at 56th (up two places) and Brazil at 62nd (up from 65th last year) in terms of money parked by their citizens and enterprises at the end of 2019.
The countries ranked higher than India also include Kenya (74th), Mauritius (68th), New Zealand (67th), Venezuela (61st), Ukraine (58th), Philippines (51st), Malaysia (49th), Seychelles (45th), Indonesia (44th), South Korea (41st), Thailand (37th), Canada (36th), Israel (28th), Turkey (26th), Mexico (26th), Taiwan (24th), Saudi Arabia (19th), Australia (18th), Italy (16th), UAE (14th), Netherlands (13th), Japan (12th) and Guernsey (11th).
However, several of India’s neighbouring nations are ranked lower, with Pakistan ranked 99th, Bangladesh 85th, Nepal 118th, Sri Lanka 148th, Myanmar 186th and Bhutan 196th. All these countries recorded decline in their figures for 2019. (PTI)
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