SNB

The Swiss National Bank said Monday that it would add 4.6 billion Swiss francs ($4.5 billion) to its financial buffer for currency reserves in an effort to strengthen the central bank’s finances against any future bouts of economic weakness, raising the provisions to 62.8 billion francs.

"The annual allocation will continue to be determined on the basis of double the average nominal economic growth rate over the previous five years. However, a minimum annual allocation of 8 percent of the provisions will now also apply," the SNB said in a statement.

The Swiss National Bank is ready to intervene in the currency markets again as it continues to battle the "significantly overvalued" Swiss franc, the central bank said Thursday after it kept its key policy rate unchanged in deeply negative territory.
The SNB’s maintained its deposit rate at -0.75%, as expected by economists. It also maintained its three-month Libor target at -1.25% to -0.25%.

"The negative interest rate and the SNB’s willingness to intervene in the foreign exchange market are intended to make Swiss franc investments less attractive, thereby easing pressure on the currency," the SNB said in a statement.

The foreign exchange reserves of the Swiss national Bank rose by CHF 17.6 billion in November to CHF 648 billion, setting a new record. During the month of October, the variation was more subdued as it increased by CHF 2.4 billion to CHF 630.4 billion. The SNB’s reserves are roughly equal to Switzerland’s entire gross domestic product.

It was the biggest increase since December 2014, the month before the SNB abandoned a ceiling it had maintained for over three years on the franc’s value against the euro.

The Swiss Bankers Association announced in a statement the nex list of accounts hold assets of about eight million Swiss francs (€7.4 million). The first step was in December 2015, when the association published a list of more than 2,600 accounts of individuals or companies without any movements on their Swiss bank accounts for the past 60 years.

The Swiss National Bank is ready to take policy measures as and when they are necessary to keep the country’s inflation and economy on track, two top policymakers underlined on Wedsneday.

SNB Vice Chairman Fritz Zurbruegg said currency market interventions had become an increasingly important tool since the financial crisis and the euro zone debt crisis had pushed up the safe-haven Swiss franc.

"Since last January our monetary policy framework is based on two elements. The first is negative interest rates… and the second element, which is important to underscore, is a willingness to intervene on foreign exchange markets as necessary," Zurbruegg said at a UBS banking conference.

The Swiss National Bank will continue annual payments of 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.02 billion) to Switzerland’s 26 cantons and the federal government according to a new 5-year pact announced on Thursday over how to divide the central bank’s profits.

The new agreement runs through 2020; the SNB will make up for any omitted or reduced profit distributions if its distribution reserve is in positive territory.

The Swiss government rejected a popular initiative that would transform the monetary system and end fractional-reserve banking, according to its dispatch to Parliament, on Wednesday.

The government said the "sovereign money" proposal to end fractional-reserve banking would complicate the SNB’s monetary policy and put the Swiss economy at risk.

The SNB’s foreign currency reserves continue to get stronger: they amounted to 630.34 billion francs in October, about 2.25 billion more than in September.

The total reserves without gold stood at 639.09 billion francs, up from 633.73 billion in August, as the figures provided by the institute to the International Monetary Fund.