The deposits of Bangladeshi nationals with different Swiss banks have decreased drastically by 93.7 per cent to 55.2 million Swiss francs (CHF), or Tk 540 crore, in 2022 compared to 2021.
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) released the data in its Annual Banking Statistics for 2022 on Thursday. As per the data, the deposits were 871 million CHF in 2021.
Deposits from neighbouring countries are also decreasing in Swiss banks like Bangladesh. In 2021, the amount of deposits of Indian citizens was 3.82 billion CHF in Swiss banks, but it has declined to 3.4 billion CHF in 2022. On the other hand, Pakistani nationals’ deposit decreased from 705.95 million CHF to 388.65 million CHF during the same period.
In this context, Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of World Bank Dhaka office, told The Business Post, “This data shows that keeping deposits in Swiss banks is not as attractive as earlier years. Many alternative places may have been created. On the other hand, may be the Swiss banks are now not as secretive about its depositors’ information as they were in earlier years.”
In response to a question, he said, “It would be wrong to think that money laundering from Bangladesh has decreased. Rather, it is understood that capital flight is increasing from the unaccounted flow of the balance of payments. It is shown as errors and omissions in BoP statement.”
"Earlier this figure was maximum $1.5 billion, now it is over $3 billion. This data suggests that money laundering from Bangladesh has not decreased.”
According to the Bangladesh Bank data, errors and omissions in balance of payment was $3.18 billion during July-April of FY23, which was $1.93 billion in the same period of pervious year.
Over $49.65 billion has gone out of Bangladesh through trade-based illicit financial flows (IFFs) in six years only, according to the findings of Global Financial Integrity (GFI), an international watchdog, on the money laundering between 2009 and 2015.
The GFI, in its report published on December 16, calculated the country figure from the value gaps caused by misinvoicing in trade between 134 developing countries and all of their global trading partners.
However, individual deposits of Bangladeshis with Swiss banks have increased despite the decline in overall deposits. Individual deposits have increased by 35.3 per cent to 35.6 million CHF in 2022 from 26.3 million CHF a year ago.
Syed Mahbubur Rahman, former president of Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB), said, “As a result of the ongoing dollar crisis, our LC payments are much lower than before due to import controls. Earlier, LCs worth $8-9 billion were opened every month, now it has come down to $4-5 billion. That's why overall deposits are shown decreased.”
“But since the deposit balance of individuals is increasing, it cannot be said that the elicited money has decreased there,” he observed.
