Funds parked by Indian individuals and companies in Swiss banks fell by 70% in 2023.
Zurich:
Funds parked by Indian individuals and companies in Swiss banks, including through local branches and other financial institutions, fell sharply by 70 percent in 2023 to a four-year low of 1.04 billion Swiss francs (9,771 million rupees), according to annual data from central Switzerland. bank showed today.
The decline in aggregate Indian client funds with Swiss banks for the second consecutive year, after reaching a 14-year high of CHF 3.83 billion in 2021, was largely driven by a sharp fall in funds held through bonds, bonds and various other financial resources. instruments.
Additionally, the amount in customer deposit accounts and funds held through other bank branches in India has also declined significantly, the data showed.
These are official figures reported by banks to the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and do not indicate the quantity of the much-debated alleged black money held by Indians in Switzerland. These figures also do not include money that Indians, NRIs or others may have in Swiss banks in the name of third country entities.
The total amount of CHF 1,039.8 million, described by the SNB as Swiss banks’ “total liabilities” or “amounts owed” to their Indian customers at the end of 2023, included CHF 310 million in customer deposits (down from CHF 394 million in 2022). -final), CHF 427 million held through other banks (down from CHF 1,110 million), CHF 10 million (down from CHF 24 million) through fiduciaries or trusts, and CHF 302 million as ‘other amounts owed to customers in the form of bonds, bonds and various other financial instruments (under CHF 1,896 million).
The total amount reached a record high of almost 6.5 billion Swiss francs in 2006, after which it has been mostly on a downward trajectory except for a few years, including 2011, 2013, 2017, 2020 and 2021, according to data from the SNB.
While all four components declined during 2019, 2020 saw a significant drop in customer deposits, while an increase was recorded across all categories in 2021. During 2022, only the fiduciary segment saw an increase.
According to the SNB, its data on Swiss banks’ “total liabilities” to Indian customers takes into account all types of Indian customer funds in Swiss banks, including deposits from individuals, banks and companies. This includes data on branches of Swiss banks in India as well as non-deposit liabilities.
On the other hand, the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) ‘banking location statistics’, which have been described in the past by Indian and Swiss authorities as a more reliable measure of Indian individuals’ deposits in Swiss banks, showed a decline of almost 25 percent during 2023 in these funds to 70.6 million dollars (663 million rupees).
It fell 18 percent in 2022 and more than 8 percent in 2021, after rising almost 39 percent in 2020.
This figure takes into account deposits as well as loans from Indian non-bank customers of banks domiciled in Switzerland and showed an increase of 7 percent in 2019, after decreasing by 11 percent in 2018 and 44 percent in 2017.
It reached a peak of over 2.3 billion dollars (over 9,000 crore rupees) at the end of 2007.
The Swiss authorities have always maintained that assets held by Indian residents in Switzerland cannot be considered “black money” and actively support India in its fight against tax fraud and evasion.
An automatic exchange of information on tax matters between Switzerland and India has been in force since 2018. In this framework, detailed financial information on all Indian residents who have accounts with Swiss financial institutions has been provided to Indian tax authorities for the first time since 2018. September 2019 and this is being followed every year.
Furthermore, Switzerland has been actively sharing details about reports of Indians suspected of committing financial irregularities after presenting prima facie evidence. This exchange of information has occurred in hundreds of cases so far.
Global funds from foreign clients, including institutions, declined to CHF 983 billion (over Rs 92 lakh crore) in 2023 from CHF 1.15 billion at the end of 2022.
In terms of assets, Indian clients accounted for 1.46 million Swiss francs at the end of 2023, marking a 63 percent decline from the previous year and the lowest level in more than two decades.
This included fees from Indian customers worth around CHF 188 million, up from CHF 164 million at the end of 2022.
While the UK topped the charts of foreign customer money in Swiss banks with CHF 254 billion, it was followed by the US (CHF 71 billion) in second place and France (CHF 64 billion) in third place.
These three were followed in the top 10 by the West Indies, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg and Guernsey.
India ranked 67th, down from 46th at the end of 2021.
Pakistan also witnessed a drop to 286 million Swiss francs (from 388 million Swiss francs), while Bangladesh witnessed a sharp drop from 55 million Swiss francs to 18 million Swiss francs.
Like India, the issue of alleged black money in Swiss banks has been a political hot potato in the two neighboring countries as well.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
This story originally appeared on Ndtv.com read the full story
