SNB watches over French elections to release pressure on franc

The Swiss National Bank stands ready to defend the franc with interest-rate cuts and market interventions if investors pile into the haven currency in response to the French elections, said SNB President Thomas Jordan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. 

“We hope that a reasonable candidate can win, somebody who is in favor of free markets, but we cannot exclude that there will be more pressure on the Swiss franc,” Jordan explained in Washington, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund spring meetings. “But as you know we also have our instruments to react to such a situation.”

Alongside the intervention in the foreign exchange market, the SNB also still has "more leverage" on interest rates, Jordan said. He underlined the SNB was in "no hurry at all" to normalise monetary policy and planned to maintain its expansionary policy as long as necessary to maintain appropriate monetary conditions in Switzerland.

The result of the first round of the French presidential election on Sunday, saw two outsiders – Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen – qualify for the second round, which takes place on May 7th.