Dhe results of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) are like a yo-yo: sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down – depending on how high the market value of the huge investments is and where the franc is at the moment. The balance sheet, which was bloated as a result of foreign exchange purchases to weaken the franc, has yielded billions in profits in recent years.
This aroused desires in politics. From left to right there are attempts to use the SNB profits for general good deeds, for example to subsidize state pension schemes. But SNB President Thomas Jordan is opposed to earmarking the central bank’s profits. Because that threatened to politicize monetary policy and make it more difficult for them to sell foreign exchange again if that makes sense.
The record loss that the SNB reported for the first half of the year is now helping Jordan in his fight to maintain the statutory independence of “his” national bank. He demonstrates that the SNB is not an institutionalized cash cow that can be relied upon to be fleeced every year.