SNB

Thomas Jordan, the chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) spoke out on cryptocurrencies on Thursday. Speaking at an event in Basel, Jordan, who also chairs the international Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, said that central banks are eyeing the issues of cryptocurrencies "very intensively," adding, "I would look at them more as an investment than a currency."

According to Reuters report, Jordan noted: "It is important to say it is not question of technology, but a question of who has access to central bank money and in what form. There are up to now many unsolved questions."

This Monday I was at Lantern Fund Forum of Lugano, and the main speaker was John Mauldin. One of his main reflections was on how it is possible to manage money in a world where central banks and governments buy assets massively and indiscriminately, without assessing the value of what they buy.

Recent moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve to tighten its monetary policy is helping the Swiss National Bank in its campaign against the “highly valued” Swiss franc, SNB Governor Andrea Maechler said on Thursday.

Interest rate rises announced by the Fed “mean the interest rate differentials between Switzerland and other countries may widen further in the future,” Maechler said. This would make the Swiss franc less attractive to investors, reducing the value of the currency, whose strength has hampered Switzerland’s export-reliant economy.

In the morning SNB released the Swiss FX reserves for October. The Swiss National Bank’s foreign-currency reserves jumped by 17 billion Swiss francs ($17.04 billion) in the month, putting the central bank on track for another banner quarter after earning a record-high profit of 32.5 billion francs between July and September.

The data increased strongly to $741.5 billion from $724.4billion. Tuesday’s

October has come and gone, and the market rally goes on and on. Numerous observers and pundits have warned of a crash or strong correction, given the length of the rally and the fundamentals of the economy, which have been noted in earlier Newsletters. The FANGs and Microsoft seem not to be influenced by any disturbing geo-political news. The Fed will probably announce another rate hike in December and possibly three more in 2018 in addition to QT at 10 billion a month.

The Swiss National Bank’s holdings of foreign currency touched a record 724.4 billion francs ($739 billion) in September, an increase of 1 percent from August. The franc slipped against both the euro and the dollar last month, two currencies in which the central bank holds a large portion of its reserves. Still, the franc remains strong, requiring the SNB to stick with its policy of negative rates and occasional interventions, President Thomas Jordan said earlier this week.

Switzerland’s central bank on Thursday softened its longstanding warning about the strong franc but still said that it was "highly valued, " suggesting Swiss officials aren’t fully satisfied yet with the franc’s weakening against the euro.

"The Swiss franc nevertheless remains highly valued, and the situation on the foreign exchange market is still fragile," the SNB said in a statement after its quarterly policy review.

Big profits from the Swiss National Bank’s massive foreign currency investments should help keep the country’s public finances in the black during 2017, Switzerland’s government said on Thursday.

Interest and dividend payments from investments bought by the SNB during its campaign to weaken the highly-valued Swiss franc allowed it to hand over some 577 million Swiss francs ($605.52 million) to federal government this year. The country’s 26 cantons, or states, have received just over 1.1 billion francs.