Swiss banks pay little or nothing on deposits. They even charge a fee for holding the money. Their famed walls of secrecy have become porous. And, one of their prized sets of clients — the Indian rich — are under the government’s hawk watch like never before.
Nonetheless, the Alpine banks have not lost their charm as last week’s baffling numbers released by the Swiss National Bank prove — after falling for three years, there’s a 50% surge in the money parked by Indians in 2017 toto 1.01 billion Swiss franc (about Rs 7,000 crore). Indeed, Swiss banks are like the Swiss cheese: many holes, but enough cheese to hold the holes.
One can guess why. A relatively stable currency shields the money from wild swings in the foreign exchange market. Trust laws in Switzerland are probably the best to pool and ring-fence family wealth — through offshore trust in which family members spread across the globe are named beneficiaries.
Swiss account is a ticket to the rich man’s club that has its privileges — such as, access to investment opportunities where the entry level is higher for investors outside the club. And, the culture of secrecy in Swiss banks is so deep-rooted that the rich with undisclosed, untaxed slush funds still consider them to be safer bet than banks in other tax havens.
So, there is an element of truth in Arun Jaitley words that “not all Swiss bank money is dirty”. But the Swiss data and the min ..
So, there is an element of truth in Arun Jaitley words that “not all Swiss bank money is dirty”. But the Swiss data and the minister’s angry one-liner to silence his political rivals mask other concerns.
First, there is a good reason to believe that total money parked by Indians and outfits controlled by Indians in Swiss banks is far more than Rs 7,000 crore. The numbers disclosed by the central bank of Switzerland does not include the money that resident Indians and NRIs have inSwiss banks in the names of entities from d
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