Zurich– With Swiss francs (CHF) 1.2 billion (around Rs 8,392 crore) held by its citizens in Switzerland’s banks, India has slipped to the 75th position, its lowest since the Swiss National Bank began releasing such data in 1997, as per latest figures released earlier this week.
The data for 2015 placed India at 61st place, while it used to be among top 50 countries in terms of holdings in Swiss banks till 2007.
India was also lowest ranked among the BRICS countries – Russia was ranked 17th (CHF 17.6 billion), China 28th (CHF 7.4 billion), Brazil 37th (CHF 4.8 billion) and South Africa 60th (CHF 2.2 billion).
Britain and America were the only two countries that accounted for Swiss bank holding of double-digit percentage share each.
While Britain accounted for the largest chunk at about CHF 350 billion, or almost 25 per cent of the total foreign money with Swiss banks, the US came second with nearly CHF 196 billion or about 14 per cent.
The total money held in Swiss banks by all their foreign clients from across the world fell by nearly 4 per cent, by over 58 billion Swiss francs to 1.41 trillion Swiss francs ($1.45 trillion).
India was ranked 75th with CHF 1.2 billion, which is not even 0.1 per cent of the total foreign money in Swiss banks.
India was ranked among the top 50 continuously between 1996 and 2007, but started declining thereafter – 55th in 2008, 59th in 2009 and 2010 each, 55th again in 2011, 71st in 2012 and then 58th in 2013.
Pakistan was placed higher at 69th place with CHF 1.5 billion, while others ranked higher than India included Mauritius, Kazakhstan, Iran, Chile, Angola, Philippines, Indonesia and Mexico.
Indian-held funds in Switzerland banks fell by 596.42 million Swiss francs to 1,217.6 million Swiss francs at the end of 2015, marking the second straight year of decline.
Last year also marked the lowest amount of funds held by Indians in the Swiss banks ever since the country started making the data public in 1997.
Total funds held in Swiss banks by Indians directly at the end of 2015 stood at 1,206.71 million Swiss francs, which was down from 1,776 million Swiss francs the year before.
Further, money held by Indians through fiduciaries or wealth managers was down at 10.89 million Swiss francs, from 37.92 million Swiss francs at the end of 2014. The total, at the end of 2014, stood at 1,814 million Swiss francs.
The funds, described as “liabilities” of Swiss banks or “amounts due to” their clients, are official figures released by the central bank. (IANS)
