Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The Swiss National Bank won’t rule out another interest rate cut, though any measure must be weighed with a view to its potential side effects, Governing Board Member Andrea Maechler said. “We’re always looking into other options, if needed — we’re looking into all of them,” Maechler said at […]
SNB pledges willingness to intervene on strong franc
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Swiss National Bank Vice President Fritz Zurbruegg said the economic backdrop remains far from normal and kept alive policy makers’ ongoing threat of currency interventions to tackle the “overvalued” franc. “Under certain conditions, however, the SNB is prepared to intervene directly in the foreign exchange market,” Zurbruegg said in […]
Swiss National Bank announcement pushes franc higher
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced today that it is maintaining its expansionary monetary policy. The target range for three-month Libor remains unchanged at between –1.25% and –0.25%, and the interest rate on sight deposits with the SNB stays the same at –0.75%. The announcement pushed the franc as high […]
Swiss national bank’s foreign currency holdings reach all-time high
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The Swiss National Bank’s holdings of foreign currency soared to an all-time high in November, a month that the franc depreciated roughly 4 percent against the dollar. The reserves, on which economists keep a close watch for clues to the central bank’s interventions, rose to 562.7 billion francs ($563 […]
The Swiss National Bank’s growing stakes in US companies
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The Swiss National Bank owned more shares of Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. in the third quarter, taking its U.S. equity portfolio to $38.95 billion. Switzerland’s central bank held 10.3 million shares in the iPhone maker on Sept. 30, according to a regulatory filing made to […]
Swiss economic news
18 September 2015 Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Swiss National Bank says franc still overvalued The Swiss National Bank kept interest rates at record lows and signaled the recent depreciation of the franc hasn’t diminished its willingness to intervene in currency markets if needed. The central bank, led by President Thomas Jordan, left its […]
5 surprising facts about the Swiss National Bank
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has an important job. Its failure to control inflation could erode the real value of our savings – 7% inflation over 10 years would halve the real value of a bank deposit. Likewise high inflation would most likely come with high mortgage interest rates – an 8% mortgage rate would […]
Big losses for the Swiss National Bank
After the recent increase in value of the Swiss franc, foreign currencies held by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) will now be worth less in Swiss franc terms. In the case of Euros around 17% less than before. This decline in value will drive a loss. It is not possible to calculate the actual figure, however […]
Swiss National Bank scraps exchange rate cap
In a surprise move the Swiss National Bank shocked the world today when it announced that it would stop managing the Swiss franc to an exchange rate of CHF 1.20 to 1.00 Euro. At the same time, it announced that it is lowering the interest rate on sight deposit account balances by 0.5 percentage points, to […]
Tax and the Swiss National Bank in 2014
To the joy of taxpayers, every year the Swiss National Bank (SNB) pays dividends to the cantons as well as the Confederation. At least this is what happened for every year from 1907 until 2012. In 2013 the SNB made a loss of CHF 9 billion and was in no position to pay. Payments were […]
