Indian Deposits in Swiss banks declines by 10.6%

New Delhi: Money held by Indians in Swiss banks has declined by 10.6 percent to Rs 12,615 crore in 2014, as per the latest data released by the Swiss Central Bank.

The funds held by Indians with banks in Switzerland fell by CHF 215 million to CHF 1,815 million (1.98 billion in the US dollar terms), from 2,030 million Swiss franc.

This is the second lowest amount of funds held by Indians in the Swiss banks and follows an increase of over 40 percent in the previous year, 2013.

In contrast, the money held in Swiss banks by their foreign clients from across the world rose to CHF 1.6 trillion or Rs 103 lakh crore at the end of 2014.

Money belonging to Indians in Swiss banks had, however, risen to over two billion Swiss Francs (nearly Rs 14,000 crore) during 2013, despite a global clampdown against the famed secrecy wall of the Switzerland banking system.

Meanwhile, Switzerland has announced a stringent due diligence regime for its banks to ‘reject’ accepting illicit funds from both existing and new customers.

Swiss banks, known for their strict secrecy practices, would also terminate relationships with existing clients who are found to have stashed illegal assets in their accounts.

Long perceived as a safe haven for stashing untaxed assets including by Indians, Switzerland has been making efforts to do away with such banking secrecy practices and has also agreed to be part of a global automatic exchange of tax information framework.

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Source:Zeenews