Swiss money: India slips to 70th position; UK on top

New Delhi, Jun 23: India has slipped to 70th position in terms of foreign

lying with the Swiss banks and accounts for a meagre 0.10 per cent of total global wealth held in the Switzerland banking system.

While much hue and cry is made over huge amounts of illicit wealth stashed by Indians in Swiss banks, the latest official data released by Switzerland's central bank shows that the money they owed to Indian clients at the end of last year was 1.42 billion Swiss francs (about Rs 9,000 crore).

While the UK continues to account for the largest chunk of such funds, India has now slipped lower to 70th position, the lowest rank among all major economies of the world, shows an analysis of annual data released by Swiss National Bank (SNB) on all the banks present in the European country.

India was ranked 55th for such funds a year ago with a total amount of 2.18 billion Swiss francs belonging to the Indian individuals.

Among the top-ten jurisdictions in terms of source of money with Swiss banks, the UK is now followed by the US, West Indies, Jersey, Guernsey, Germany, France, Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Hong Kong.

The funds owed by the Swiss banks to their UK clients stood at 295 billion Swiss francs, accounting for about 22 per cent of total such funds (over 1.4 trillion Swiss francs).

The major countries ranked among the top-25 include include Singapore, Japan, Italy, Australia, Russia, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Cyprus.

Besides, China was ranked 26th, Canada 28th, Brazil at 39th and South Africa at 50th. India's neighbouring country Pakistan was also ranked one place higher at 69th, although countries like Mauritius, Hungary, Denmark, Finland, Libya, Brunei and Sri Lanka are positioned below India.

PTI