Deposits held by Bangladeshi nationals and banks in Switzerland rose 41 percent compared with 2025, according to the annual report released Thursday by the Swiss National Bank, the country’s central bank.
According to the report, Bangladeshi deposits in Swiss banks stood at 834.2 million Swiss francs (CHF) at the end of 2025, equivalent to about 12,763 crore taka (1 crore = 10 million). It is the second-highest level of Bangladeshi deposits in Swiss banks on record. The previous peak was 871.1 million Swiss francs in 2021.
An analysis of Swiss National Bank figures shows that the overall rise in deposits was driven mainly by a sharp jump in money held by Bangladeshi banks. Deposits by Bangladeshi banks rose 43 percent, from 576.6 million francs in 2024 to 822.7 million francs at the end of 2025. In other words, banks in Bangladesh held 98.6 percent of the total deposits.
By contrast, deposits in accounts held by individual Bangladeshi customers fell about 10 percent. They declined from 12.6 million francs in 2024 to 11.4 million francs in 2025. The Swiss bank’s annual report covers only legal and official accounts, however, so it offers no way to gauge the much-discussed scale of black money or laundered funds.
To curb tax evasion and money laundering, Switzerland has since 2018 operated the global Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) system. Under it, a customer’s name, address, tax identification number (TIN) and bank balance are passed to the tax authorities of the relevant country. In 2025, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) exchanged information on about 3.4 million financial accounts with 101 countries.
According to the latest May update from the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes 2026, however, Bangladesh has yet to sign on to the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) agreement.
Bangladesh ranks second in South Asia
In terms of money held in Swiss banks, Bangladesh now ranks second among South Asian countries. India holds the most in the region, about 3.2 billion Swiss francs, though its deposits fell 8 percent from a year earlier. While deposits from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan declined, those from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives rose in 2025. In percentage terms, the steepest increase in the region, 48.2 percent, was recorded by war-ravaged Afghanistan.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report