Switzerland's central bank has named a new back-up to its three-person governing board. The new appointee is currently head of the Swiss National Bank's trading desk in Singapore.
The Swiss government appointed Martin Reto Schlegel (pictured above) as an alternate member of the Swiss National Bank's governing board, according to a statement. Schlegel is currently in Singapore running the central bank's Asian trading floor. He takes over as the deputy head of the SNB's first department, which is run by central bank head Thomas Jordan.
The move represents a stratospheric career move for the 41-year-old banker, who spent less than two years in Singapore after running the SNB's foreign exchange and gold trading activities previously. Schlegel will become one of three back-ups to the SNB's top board, meaning he will also sit in on policymaking decisions and advise Jordan and the other two governors, Andrea Maechler and Fritz Zurbruegg.
Wider Authority
Schlegel takes over from Thomas Wiedmer, the long-standing alternate governor who stepped down last month. He has impeccable credentials including a PhD in economics and, like Maechler, experience at the International Monetary Fund. Schlegel has been a part-time lecturer at the University of Basel for the past eight years.
Due to Jordan's public responsibilities as chairman of the SNB's governors, it is likely that Schlegel will have wide authority over running the first department, which oversees economic and international cooperation, and statistics. His term runs through 2021.
While all three governors serve as public faces of the SNB, Jordan has had a far wider role in recent months. He successfully defended the central bank against a popular «real money» vote last month which sought to ban commercial banks from creating money through lending.
