No Claimants For 3500 Dormant Swiss Bank Accounts

Zurich/New Delhi: The Switzerland Banking Ombudsman made public an updated list of dormant accounts without owners or claimants. Some of these accounts are linked to Indian citizens.

The list, which was first published in December 2015, gets updated when a dormant account is declared. The Swiss banks, known as safe financial havens globally, do this so that the real owners or the legal heirs of the accounts can come forward to redeem the claim by submitting the necessary documents.

Till now, there has been over 3500 such accounts in the list with a few linked to India. In 2017, only 40 such accounts and 2 safe deposit boxes were claimed.

Switzerland has, in recent years, relaxed its banking laws and agreed to cooperate with countries to reduce financial frauds and tax evasions. India is also one of the countries which will be getting automatic exchange of information from Switzerland on accounts where Indian authorities can provide proof of malpractice.

Funds from India in Swiss banks had risen by 50 percent to Rs 7000 crore in 2017, according to data released by the Swiss National Bank. However, not all of these funds are said to be ‘black money’.

The total funds in six India-linked dormant accounts are expected to be valued at around Rs 300 crore.

The names of the account holders are Pierre Vachek and Bernet Rosmarie from Bombay (earlier Mumbai), Bahadur Chandra Singh from Dehradun, Dr Mohan Lal from Paris, Suchah Yogesch Prabhudas from London and Kishore Lall, whose address was not disclosed.

If no legitimate claim is made for the accounts by 2020, the Swiss banks can transfer the assets to the government.