2019-03-21 – Publication of the 2018 Annual Report

The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), have created a group to share experiences as they assess the potential cases for central bank digital currency (CBDC) in their home jurisdictions.

The Swiss National Bank is honouring Carmen Reinhart with this year’s Karl Brunner Distinguished Lecture Series. Carmen Reinhart is an influential economist who has made outstanding contributions to macroeconomics. She has been Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard Kennedy School since 2012, and also currently serves on the Economic Advisory Panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The increasing volatility of SNB Earnings Annual results are not really definite. Given that the SNB accumulates foreign currencies with interventions, they have huge swings. But the SNB may lose 50 billion in one year and win 60 billion in the next year or vice verse. Good years of the Credit Cycle This trend was … Continue reading »

The 2019 Annual Report of the Swiss National Bank is published on the SNB website

Swiss National Bank maintains expansionary monetary policy, raises negative interest exemption threshold, and is examining additional steps. Coronavirus is posing exceptionally large challenges for Switzerland, both socially and economically. Uncertainty has risen considerably worldwide, and the outlook both for the global economy and for Switzerland has worsened markedly.

The Swiss National Bank reports a loss of CHF 38.2 billion for the first quarter of 2020. The loss on foreign currency positions amounted to CHF 41.2 billion.

The Swiss National Bank announced the establishment of the SNB COVID-19 refinancing facility (CRF) on 25 March 2020. This facility allows banks to obtain liquidity from the SNB by assigning credit claims from corporate loans as collateral. In so doing, the SNB enables banks to expand their lending rapidly and on a large scale.

The coronavirus pandemic and the measures implemented to contain it have led to a severe downturn in economic activity and a decline in inflation both in Switzerland and abroad. The SNB’s expansionary monetary policy remains necessary to ensure appropriate monetary conditions in Switzerland.