Switzerland's central bank has replaced the head of its Singapore trading floor, finews.com has learned. The job is key to its policy-making efforts.

The Swiss National Bank, or SNB, has appointed Marco Huwiler as the new head of its Singapore office, a source familiar with the move told finews.com. As the SNB's man in Singapore, Huwiler reports to Andréa Maechler, one of three central bank directors, who oversees a department tasked with ensuring monetary stability. 

A spokeswoman for the SNB confirmed the move of Huwiler, who has run the financial market analysis department for the SNB for the past seven years. He replaces Martin Schlegel,who was promoted to a back-up to the SNB's three-person governing board last July.

The first foreign central bank to set up in Singapore five years ago, the SNB used the branch to assist with massive currency interventions meant to weaken the franc. With an eight-person trading floor, the SNB has also sought to diversify into Asian currencies, including Japanese yen, Korean won and Singapore and Australian dollars.