Indians take official deposits with Swiss banks to Rs12,700 crore
14 Jun 2012
Indians added 600 million Swiss francs in official deposits with safe haven Swiss banks in the five years between 2006 and 2011, riasing their known holdings to 2.18 billion Swiss francs (Rs12,700 crore).
Cash held by Indians in Swiss banks at the end of 2011 stood at 2.18 billion Swiss francs (about Rs12,700 crore), up 600 million Swiss francs (around Rs3,500 crore), data released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in its annual handbook showed.
This, however, does not include unaccounted money held by Indians in Swiss banks in other names, which some estimates put at around $20-25 billion.
There are, however, no official estimates for such unaccounted funds.
Indians' known deposits with Swiss banks have risen for the first time in the past five years, at a time when there is a continuing debate on black money being stashed away by wealthy Indians in safe haven banks abroad.
The funds, described by SNB as 'liabilities' of Swiss banks towards their clients from India, include 2.025 billion Swiss francs held directly by them and 158 million held through 'fiduciaries' or wealth managers, SNB said in its handbook.
