GENEVA, july 17 (Agencies): The Swiss National Bank, the central bank of Switzerland, has estimated that Indian clients had deposits of about $2.5 billion in banks in the European nation in 2010. This is just a fraction of the $1.5-trillion figure that had been projected by political parties and non-governmental organizations, who have attacked the UPA government with their anti-corruption movement over the last few months. “The Swiss National Bank can only say that liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indian holders according to our annual statistics... were Swiss francs 1.9 billion ($2.5 billion) in 2010,” Walter Meier, spokesperson for the Swiss National Bank’s president, said.
According to him, the liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indian holders were Swiss francs 1.965 billion ($2.7 billion) in 2009 and Swiss francs 2.4 billion (about $3 billion) in 2008. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the West after the collapse of the Lehman Bank in the US in 2008, Swiss private banks, particularly their largest bank UBS, had suffered huge losses. Subsequently, there were substantial withdrawals of funds from Swiss banks. Unconfirmed reports suggested that several Indian companies and private holders had also moved funds from Switzerland to Singapore following the financial crisis in 2008. Moreover, several legal cases were filed against Swiss banks, especially UBS, for parking funds by wealthy US citizens through tax evasion.
In addition, the banks came under growing international pressure from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and faced tougher G-20 financial regulations. All these forced the Swiss government to considerably relax its confidentiality provisions of numbered accounts that provided the extreme forms of client confidentiality until two years ago. After the OECD reported a list of such “uncooperative” countries as Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria and Liechtenstein, among others, to the G-20, there was a panic reaction.
According to him, the liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indian holders were Swiss francs 1.965 billion ($2.7 billion) in 2009 and Swiss francs 2.4 billion (about $3 billion) in 2008. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the West after the collapse of the Lehman Bank in the US in 2008, Swiss private banks, particularly their largest bank UBS, had suffered huge losses. Subsequently, there were substantial withdrawals of funds from Swiss banks. Unconfirmed reports suggested that several Indian companies and private holders had also moved funds from Switzerland to Singapore following the financial crisis in 2008. Moreover, several legal cases were filed against Swiss banks, especially UBS, for parking funds by wealthy US citizens through tax evasion.
In addition, the banks came under growing international pressure from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and faced tougher G-20 financial regulations. All these forced the Swiss government to considerably relax its confidentiality provisions of numbered accounts that provided the extreme forms of client confidentiality until two years ago. After the OECD reported a list of such “uncooperative” countries as Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria and Liechtenstein, among others, to the G-20, there was a panic reaction.
Size of corruption Rs 1,555 thousand crore in last decade: Study
NEW Delhi, july 17 (PTI): The menace of corruption in the country is pegged at Rs 1,555 thousand crore in the last decade and majority of it has been laundered out of India using illicit gateways, a recent study has claimed. According to a first of its kind report on ‘Ascertaining size of corruption in India with respect to money laundering’, an individual spent over Rs 2,000 as a cost of corruption in 2009, which is 260 per cent higher than the amount borne by a citizen ten years back.
“In the past decade, money laundered out of India was at least Rs 1,886 thousand crores or USD 419 billion. This quantification of the laundering is worked out on the most pessimistic manner and by considering the global parameters,” it said. “If the Gross Domestic Product-based money laundering model is translated to quantify the corruption, then the size of corruption in the last decade is Rs 1,555 thousand crore or USD 345 billion in India,” the report said.
The study was conducted by a Pune-based company Indiaforensic, which has pioneered in fraud examination, security, risk management and forensic accounting research and has been for long helping the country’s investigating agencies like CBI in several high profile cases. It is based on the analysis of scarce data available for measuring money laundering described through three models-- property recovery, crime based and GDP based. “The three models gave details of quantum of money laundering. They are based on the statistics by National Crime records Bureau ( NCRB )),” said Mayur Joshi, an anti-fraud and money laundering expert and founder member of the firm which had assisted CBI in the multi-crore Satyam scam.
“In the past decade, money laundered out of India was at least Rs 1,886 thousand crores or USD 419 billion. This quantification of the laundering is worked out on the most pessimistic manner and by considering the global parameters,” it said. “If the Gross Domestic Product-based money laundering model is translated to quantify the corruption, then the size of corruption in the last decade is Rs 1,555 thousand crore or USD 345 billion in India,” the report said.
The study was conducted by a Pune-based company Indiaforensic, which has pioneered in fraud examination, security, risk management and forensic accounting research and has been for long helping the country’s investigating agencies like CBI in several high profile cases. It is based on the analysis of scarce data available for measuring money laundering described through three models-- property recovery, crime based and GDP based. “The three models gave details of quantum of money laundering. They are based on the statistics by National Crime records Bureau ( NCRB )),” said Mayur Joshi, an anti-fraud and money laundering expert and founder member of the firm which had assisted CBI in the multi-crore Satyam scam.
