Swiss National Bank

Investments by Sri Lankan individuals, companies or the Sri Lankan government in secret Swiss accounts has totaled to more than 85 million Swiss francs in 2011, a media report said.

According to a report published on the Colombo based Sunday Times news paper, the details have been revealed in the 2011 annual report of the SNB, Switzerland’s Central Bank.

Apart from, more than 85 million worth Swiss francs held by Sri Lankan individuals, companies or the Sri Lankan Government in secret Swiss accounts, NSB has also listed 44 million worth of Swiss francs as liabilities against Sri Lanka during the year 2011.

Despite revealing the figures of assets and liabilities, the SNB has not listed as to who owns these assets or liabilities.

According to the news report, Swiss secrecy laws protect the identity of the investor/debtor, which is among a host of reasons why much black money or ‘dirty’ money is believed to be stashed by corrupt governments, individuals or businesspersons.

Assets and liabilities of more than 200 countries are listed from 2002 to 2011, in SNB’s latest 2011 annual report.

According to the Sunday Times, in 2002, Sri Lanka’s assets in all Swiss banks totaled 22.9 million CHF, 2003 – 34.7 million, 2004 – 105.5 million, 2005 – 177.6 million, 2006 – 56.5 million, 2007 – 123.5 million, 2008 – 104.8 million, 2009 – 87.5 million and 2010 – 111.3 million.

Under this category, most of the investments were made in savings accounts.

The news report says, it has been unclear to some local bankers who have analyzed the data as to whether each annual figure reflected a carry-forward amount from the previous year or whether each year was a separate, new investment figure.

Sunday Times reports that if it was the latter, investments under Sri Lanka would total 910.3 million (for the past 10 years) while liabilities would total 1.07 billion.

The Swiss franc is higher or equal in value against the US dollar (1CHF = 1.048 US$).

Source: Sunday Times

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