The amount of Bangladesh-linked money in the banks of Switzerland has slightly dropped by 2.27 percent (Tk 126 crore) in 2019 than it was in 2018, according to the latest Swiss central bank data.
Swiss National Bank (SNB) released its annual report titled 'Banks in Switzerland 2019’ on Thursday (June 25) showed the money held by Bangladeshi nationals and entities stood at CHF 6,030 million (Tk 5,427) crore in 2019 – it was CHF 6177.00 million (Tk 5,553 crore) in 2018.
However, the revealed data report does not take into account the monetary value of gold or valuables in stock.
Deposits in Swiss banks from Bangladesh’s neighbouring countries, including India and Pakistan, have fallen sharply, according to the report.
Switzerland has a longstanding reputation of being a haven for the rich to secretly deposit their money in its banks. For almost 200 years, this country in Europe has been the centre of such banking services. In a country of 8 million people, there are 246 banks.
Despite not providing client information, the country's central bank has been disclosing the amount of country-based deposits for the last several years.
According to Global Financial Integrity (GFI), an average of Tk 64,000 crore is smuggled from Bangladesh every year.
