Swiss banks owe Indian holders over USD 2bn: Swiss Central Bank

Geneva: Swiss Central Bank estimates the total liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indian holders at about USD 2.5 billion in 2010 as against projections of about USD 1.5 trillion by political parties and non-governmental organisations.

"The Swiss National Bank can only say that liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indian holders according to our annual statistics... were Swiss francs 1.945 billion [USD 2.5 billion] in 2010," Walter Meier, the spokesperson for the Swiss National Bank President, told PTI.

He said the liabilities of the Swiss banks towards Indian holders were Swiss francs 1.965 billion (USD 2.7 billion) in 2009 and Swiss francs 2.4 billion (about USD 3 billion) in 2008.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the West after the the collapse of the Lehman Bank in the United States in 2008, Swiss private banks, particularly their largest bank UBS, had suffered huge losses.

Subsequently, there were substantial withdrawals of funds from Swiss banks.

Several legal cases against Swiss banks, especially UBS, for parking funds by wealthy US citizens through tax evasion, as well as growing international pressure from the Paris-based OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the G-20 financial regulation forced the Swiss government to considerably relax its confidentiality provisions of numbered accounts.

Source: Financial Express