Indian Money In Swiss Banks Dips To Record Low At 9,000 Cr

Fiduciaries are essentially wealth fund managers who hold the money of Indian private holders and families in the so-called numbered accounts.

The Swiss banks' direct liabilities towards clients from India include funds held in savings and deposit accounts by Indian individuals, financial institutions and corporates.

The size of Swiss banks' assets in India also fell by about two billion Swiss francs to 4.3 billion Swiss francs in 2012. Prior to this, these assets had been continuously increasing since 2006 and had more than doubled by 2011.

The experts have been saying that there has been a "perceptible flight of funds" of Indian holders from Swiss banks to other places in the recent years.

At the same time, the global pressure has been rising on Switzerland to ask its banks to share information about their clients with foreign governments.

It is being suspected now that Indians having illicit wealth in Swiss banks may be moving their funds in fear of being exposed due to growing scrutiny. At the same time, even those having legitimate funds in Swiss banks may be moving away, due to a growing level of negativity attached to them.

Top financial regulators Sebi and RBI have already stepped up their vigil over Indian entities routing their funds from secretly held Swiss bank accounts to India through other locations.

It is feared that the money might be routed back to India, either into the stock market through FIIs or even via the FDI route.

Indians' direct exposure to Swiss banks stood at a record high level of about five billion Swiss francs in 2006, while the amount held through fiduciaries at that time was close to 1.5 billion Swiss francs.

Globally, all the foreign clients of Swiss banks had a direct exposure of over two trillion Swiss francs in 2007, while their funds held through fiduciaries were about 365 billion Swiss francs.

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