No claimants for Rs 300 crore dormant in Swiss accounts

The list of all such accounts - of Swiss citizens and foreigners including from India - was first published by the Switzerland Banking Ombudsman in December 2015 and it keeps getting updated as and when an account is declared dormant. 

This is to allow real owners of the accounts or their legal heirs to stake a claim with necessary proof. The details get deleted from the list when a successful claim is made and this was the case for as many as 40 accounts and two safe deposit boxes in the year 2017 itself, as per the latest information shared by the Ombudsman.

However, the list of over 3,500 such accounts continues to have at least six with links to India since December 2015, as no successful claimant has come forward for them. At least three individuals from India and three others of Indian origin - but resident of other countries - continue to figure on the list of unclaimed bank accounts made public by Switzerland since December 2015. While specific figures for India-linked dormant accounts is not known, the total holding in all such accounts is estimated at about 44 million Swiss franc (about Rs 300 crore).

Place of residence of three has been mentioned as India, while it is Paris (France) for one and London for another. The place of residence for the sixth was not disclosed. These are Pierre Vachek and Bernet Rosmarie from ‘Bombay’, Bahadur Chandra Singh from Dehradun, Dr Mohan Lal from Paris, Suchah Yogesch Prabhudas from London. Kishore Lall is the one whose place of residence was not disclosed.