India slips to 75th place on money in Swiss banks; UK on top

As per the latest annual update on Swiss banks, released by Switzerland's central bank SNB (Swiss National Bank), India has slipped to 75th place in terms of money held by its citizens with banks in Switzerland, while the UK remains on top.

India was placed at 61st place last year, while it used to be among top-50 countries in terms of holdings in Swiss banks till 2007. The country was ranked highest at 37th place in the year 2004.

The total money held there by foreign clients from across the world fell by nearly 4 per cent to Swiss franc (CHF) 1.42 trillion (about Rs 98 lakh crore) at the end of 2015.

In terms of individual countries, the UK 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. No other country accounted for a double-digit percentage share, while others in the top-ten included West Indies, Germany, Bahamas, France, Guernsey, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Panama.

India was ranked 75th with CHF 1.2 billion (about Rs 8,392 crore), which is not even 0.1 per cent of the total foreign money in Swiss banks and is the lowest for the country in at least two decades or since 1996 - the first year for which full comparable data is available.

Pakistan was placed higher at 69th place with CHF 1.5 billion - a shade better than 0.1 per cent of total foreign money parked with Swiss banks.

India was also lowest ranked among the BRICS nations - 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).

Others ranked higher than India included Mauritius, Kazakhstan, Iran, Chile, Angola, Philippines, Indonesia and Mexico, while a number of so-called tax havens were also placed above, including Jersey, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Marshall Islands, Bermuda, Belize, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Seychelles and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

All offshore financial centres together held CHF 378 billion in Swiss banks. The total for developing countries stood at CHF 207 billion, while the same for the developed countries was much higher at CHF 833 million.

India was ranked in top-50 continuously between 1996 and 2007, but started declining after that - 55th in 2008, 59th in 2009 and 2010 each, 55th again in 2011, 71st in 2012 and then 58th in 2013.