The story
The bank formed as a result of the need for a reduction in the number of commercial banks issuing banknotes, which numbered 53 sometime after 1826. In the 1874 revision of the Federal Constitution it was given the task to oversee laws concerning the issuing of banknotes. In 1891, the Federal Constitution was revised again to entrust the Confederation with sole rights to issue banknotes.
1905 foundation
The Swiss National Bank was founded under the law of 6 October 1905 ('the National Bank Act'), which entered into force on 16 January 1906. Business was started on 20 June 1907.
World War I
Sometime during World War I (1914–1917) the bank instructed to release notes of small denomination, for the first time, by the Federal Council of Switzerland.
Interwar years
The Federal Council devalued the Swiss Franc during 1936, and as a result there was made available to the National Bank an amount of money, which the bank subsequently stored in a Währungsausgleichsfonds reserve for use in future situations of emergency.
World War II
The Swiss National Bank provided 1.2 billion CHF to the Reichsbank. Of this, a value of approximately 780 million CHF of the gold given to the National Bank was gold which had been looted by the forces of Germany. In addition the National Bank also exchanged between 1.2 and 1.6 billion CHF for gold from the Allied forces. During 20 April 1944, gold from the gold reserves of Italy arrived from Como at the railway station within Chiasso.
There is controversy over the role of the Swiss National Bank in the transfer of Nazi gold during World War II. The SNB was the largest gold distribution centre in continental Europe before the war. A study by the U.S. Department of State in 1997 notes that the bank "must have known that some portion of the gold it was receiving from the Reichsbank was looted from occupied countries". This was confirmed by the Swiss Bergier commission in 1998 which concluded that the SNB received US$440 million in gold from Nazi sources, of which US$316 million is estimated to have been looted.
The gold from Nazi governorship sources was in the form of lingots containing gold looted from central banks of Europe and gold from Jews executed within the concentration camps established by the machination of the Nazi regime, which the SNB took without knowing these facts at the time, nor inquiring to any great degree in the process of its transfer into the possession of the SNB, according to Robert Vogler, a former archivist of the SNB.
Post-war 20th century
In 1981 the bank participated in research involving Orell Füssli and an optical research group named Landis+Gyr, on matters of banknote design.
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During 1994 the bank was described as a joint-stock company acting under the administration and supervision of the Confederation. It had eight branches and twenty sub-branches within cantons. The governing board had overall executive management of the National Bank, with supervision entrusted to its shareholders, the banks' council, the banks' committee, its local committees and auditing committee. The three members of the governing board together decided the monetary policy of the Swiss National Bank. Towards the end of 1993 it had 566 employees.
2004: formal independence from government
With the inception of Article 99 of the Swiss Federal Constitution, in May 2004, the National Bank achieved formal independence.
2008: UBS bailout
SNB and the Swiss government engineered a bailout plan for UBS in October 2008 during the subprime mortgage crisis. SNB, agreeing to take over around $60 billion of UBS's toxic assets, created a special-purpose vehicle called the SNB StabFund, to park the securities. Within a few years, SNB was able to free itself from UBS's illiquid securities, making a CHF 5 billion profit in the process.
2011: euro exchange rate cap
The SNB announced on 6 September 2011 to set a minimum exchange rate of CHF 1.20 per euro and that it would "enforce this minimum rate with the utmost determination and is prepared to buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities" in order to take measures to stem the development of a possible recession. The bank stated the 1.20 exchange rate was defendable as the bank could potentially proceed to mint enough banknotes to control the rate sufficiently.
The SNB announced on 15 January 2015 the euro currency arrangement would end as the euro crisis had passed and the Europeans would be making financial policy changes.
Ownership as of 2021
As of 31 December 2021, 78.17% of voting shares were held by public shareholders (cantons, cantonal banks, etc.). The remaining shares were largely in the hands of private persons. Shares of the SNB have been listed at the SIX Swiss Exchange since 1907. As of April 2022, Theo Siegert, a German entrepreneur, held 5.05% of its stocks, and as such, he was the third-largest shareholder, between the Canton of Vaud (3.401%) and the Canton of Zürich (5.2%). The national bank's statutes, though, limit the voting rights of private investors to 100 shares.
2022 losses
On 9 January 2023 the SNB reported a loss of 132 billion CHF in its annual results for 2022. As many cantons expected dividend payments from the SNB, some cantons had to revise their budgets or even tap their financial reserves. For example, a planned tax decrease in the canton of Thurgau had to be postponed. Likewise, the federal government had budgeted a 666 million CHF income from SNB.
2023 liquidity assistance
On 16 March 2023, Credit Suisse sought to shore up their finances by taking a loan of CHF 50 billion from SNB after the bank's share price dropped nearly 25 percent after Saudi National Bank, its largest investor, said it could not provide more financial assistance due to its regulatory restrictions. Despite the intervention, a bank run occurred that week, causing SNB and the Swiss government to fast-track UBS taking over Credit Suisse. To support the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS, the SNB offered liquidity assistance of up to CHF 100 billion.
2025
In May 2025, the Swiss National Bank considered cutting interest rates below zero to combat low inflation, which fell to 0% in April, the lowest in four years. And on June 19, the SNB officially did, cutting the policy interest rate by 25 basis points, dropping it down 0.00%. Chairman Martin Schlegel emphasized the SNB's readiness to implement negative rates and intervene in foreign exchange markets to weaken the Swiss franc, aiming to support exporters and maintain price stability.
2026
During the first half of 2026, the Swiss National Bank experienced a substantial financial recovery. The bank reported a half a year profit of CHF 25.2 billion.
From Wikipedia’s article on Swiss National Bank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6