The amount of money deposited by Bangladeshi nationals with the Swiss banks has increased by 10 per cent in 2015, according to the latest data of the central bank of Switzerland.
Total funds held by the Bangladeshis with the banks of Switzerland stood at CHF (Swiss francs) 559.25 million or US$ 571 million last year.
The amount is around Tk 45 billion (Tk 4,500 crore), which is almost equal to the annual budget of the water resources ministry or almost double to the annual budget of the food ministry for the new fiscal year that starts today.
Of the total funds, almost the entire amount was directly held by Bangladeshi individuals and entities, while only $8.4 million was held through fiduciaries or wealth managers.
The funds, described by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) as 'liabilities' of Swiss banks or 'amounts due to' their clients, are the official figures disclosed by the Swiss authority. It did not mention anything about the volume of stashed money, held by Bangladeshis in the safe havens of Switzerland.
Swiss banks are well known for their secrecy, and it is widely established that tax evaded funds land in these banks.
Not that all the deposited Bangladeshi funds in the Alpine nation banks are illegally transferred from the country, as some amount is actually kept by Bangladeshis working in Switzerland. But, large chunk of the money is stashed from the country in different ways.
While the Bangladesh Bank (BB) during the last few years repeatedly claimed that initiatives were taken to bring back money from the Swiss banks, latest data showed that nothing was done in this regard.  Even BB failed to make any correspondence with SNB, its counterpart in Zurich.
SNB's official figures, however, do not include the money that Bangladeshis might have in Swiss banks in the names of entities from different countries.
Meanwhile, Indian money in the Swiss banks declined significantly last year due to the Indian government's continued move to collect information about the country's account-holders. Indian government also started hectic negotiation with Swiss authority concerned to bring back the money from the country.
In 2014, Indian money with the Swiss banks was CHF 1.81 billon, which came down to CHF 1.22 billion in 2015.
On the other hand, Pakistani funds with the Swiss banks have increased substantially, showed the SNB data. Pakistani money worth some CHF 1.51 billion was deposited with the Swiss banks in 2015, which was CHF 1.30 billion in 2014.
As per the SNB data, the total money held in the Swiss banks by all their foreign clients from across the world dropped by nearly four per cent or over CHF 58 billion to CHF 1.41 trillion ($1.45 trillion or about Tk 113.42 billion).
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Source: The Financial Express