Amid a raging debate in India over wealth stashed away by Indians in Swiss

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banks, official Swiss bank figures show that the quantum of such money is only a very small fraction, or 0.07 per cent, of the total assets of all foreigners with banks in this European nation.

As per the official figures disclosed by Switzerland's central bank, the Swiss National Bank (SNB), total deposits of Indian individuals and companies with all the Swiss banks put together stood at about $2.5 billion at the end of 2010.

In comparison, total foreign assets worth around 2.85 trillion Swiss francs ($3.5 trillion) were parked in Swiss banks at the end of the year 2010, said a spokesperson for the Swiss Bankers' Association, the apex body of Switzerland-based banks.

However, the actual total wealth held by entities from India directly and indirectly in Swiss banks may be much higher and some private bankers have pegged this figure at $15-20 billion.

But the figures made available by SNB showed that Indians' money in Swiss banks was much lower than the figure for a host of other countries, including the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.

The Indian figure is in fact far lower than many developing countries as well, such as Russia, Brazil, China, Turkey, Ukraine, Mexico, Venezuela, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Liberia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

Even the figure for Pakistan, 1,947 million Swiss francs, is marginally higher by 2 million Swiss francs (about $2.4 million, or about Rs 11 crore) than for India.