Under this new agreement, Switzerland has also promised to assist Indian authorities on a priority basis.
There has been a huge political uproar over Indian black money allegedly stashed in Swiss banks and the new government has said it is committed to tackling this menace.
As per Swiss National Bank's latest data, the total money held by Indians in Swiss banks stood at over Rs 14,000 crore as on December 2013, up by nearly 42 per cent from a year ago.
While banks put in place necessary safeguards, there are apprehensions that many of their clients are being advised to move the funds through gold, diamond and other routes.
A new strategy of ‘layering' has also come to light at Swiss banks to thwart any attempt for identification of real beneficiary owners of funds entrusted with them, as per government and banking sources.
‘Layering' is a key stage in money laundering and involves moving illicit funds around financial system through a complex series of deals to complicate the paper trail.
This layering typically takes place between the first stage — placement of black money in the financial system either in cash vaults, or through a series of cash or sham financial transactions — and before the final ‘integration' stage when money is put back into the financial system through various transactions for the benefit of its final recipient.
