In contrast to a 95 billion Swiss franc loss in the first half of last year, the Swiss National Bank booked a profit of 13.7 billion francs for the first six months of this year. It lost money on its Swiss franc holdings and exchange-related transactions.
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) said that it made a profit of 13.7 billion Swiss francs ($15.3 billion) in the first half of the year, helped by a 16.2 billion profit on its holdings of foreign exchange, according to results reported Monday.
Half-year results marked a contraction from the first three months of the year when the central bank booked a 26.9 billion Swiss franc ($29.4 billion) profit.
Help From Foreign Exchange
While it profited from foreign exchange holdings, it recorded a loss of 3.4 billion on its Swiss franc holdings. The result was largely due to 3.3 billion francs for sight deposit remuneration. It incurred additional expenses of 1.1 billion francs from liquidity-absorbing operations, according to the statement.
Interest and dividend income was 5.1 billion and 2.2 billion francs respectively, while incurred interest expenses were 600 million. Interest-bearing paper and instruments contributed 2.8 billion in price gains, with 26.2 billion coming from equities, while exchange-related losses were 19.6 billion.
Although unchanged in volume, the value of the SNB's gold holdings increased by 1.2 billion francs.
The SNB added the usual caveat that its results are largely dependent on gold, foreign exchange, and capital markets subject to strong fluctuations, making conclusions about the annual profit difficult.
