The money stashed in Swiss banks by a section of Bangladeshis increased by 36 per cent within a year, shows the latest data released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB).
The funds held directly by Bangladeshi individuals and entities with banks in Switzerland stood at around 506 million Swiss francs (US$ 545 million or 54.5 crore) in 2014.
The amount is equivalent to around Tk 41.60 billion, just half the country's budget deficit proposed for the next fiscal year (FY) 2015-16.
The data from the central bank of Switzerland also shows that the money stashed by Bangladeshis in the Swiss banks in 2013 stood at 372 million Swiss francs ($ 400 million).
But the Bangladeshis deposited very small amounts with the two big Swiss banks, namely UBS and Credit Suisse. The amount was only 21 million Swiss francs ($22.6 million) in 2014.
They deposited most of the amount of money in other small Swiss banks, according the data.
Swiss banks denote those banks located and operated in Switzerland and known for holding money, mostly transferred illicitly from other countries by evading tax.
The latest data from the Zurich-based SNB also raises question about the Bangladesh Bank's much-hyped initiative to seek information from the Swiss central bank.
Last year when the reports on money, held by Bangladeshis illegally with the Swiss banks in 2013, were published in newspapers, the central bank of Bangladesh said that it would take necessary steps to seek information from its Swiss counterpart. But, little progress could be made in one year in this connection.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials at that time, however, said that Bangladeshis residing or staying in Switzerland or any other country could deposit their money with Swiss banks and the central bank had nothing to do with such accounts. Only funds transferred from Bangladesh to Swiss banks could be examined.
The money held in Swiss banks by their foreign clients from across the world also increased and stood at 1.5 trillion Swiss francs (around $1.6 trillion) at the end of 2014.
At the end of 2013 the amount was 1.32 trillion Swiss francs.
Though the amount of money held by Bangladeshis in Swiss banks increased, the amount of money held by Indians declined by 10 per cent following Indian and some other governments' measures to combat money laundering.
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