'No record of black money here'

Statistics about the issue simply do not exist, say Swiss bankers

Political parties and other groups in India have long held the claim that the amount of black money gone from India to Swiss banks could be one trillion dollars.

Such statistics have often been quoted to global institutions and even to Swiss National Bank, the country's central bank.

However, a top Swiss Bankers Association official has trashed the claims and objected to such figures being quoted as “gospel truths.”  “Anyone claiming to have such figures should be forced to identify their source and explain the methodology used to produce them,” said the SBA’s Head of International Communications, James Nason, who spoke to PTI from Basal.

“We take all our statistics from Swiss National Bank and statistics about 'black money' simply do not exist,” he added.

Nason said he was aware of such figures being quoted to an SBA report on bank deposits in the Swiss banks by people of various nationalities, which put Indians as the biggest depositors there, but asserted that there were no truth in it and it never published any such report.