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Swiss National Bank Schweizerische Nationalbank (German) Banque Nationale Suisse (French) Banca Nazionale Svizzera (Italian) Banca Naziunala Svizra (Romansh)
A picture of Swiss National Bank headquarters in Berne
Headquarters	Berne and Zurich
Established	1907
Chairman	Jean-Pierre Roth
Central Bank of	Switzerland
Currency	Swiss Franc
ISO 4217 Code	CHF
Website	Official site of Swiss National Bank

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is the central bank of Switzerland. It is responsible for Swiss monetary policy and for issuing Swiss franc banknotes.

The names of the institution in the four official languages of the country are: German: Schweizerische Nationalbank; French: Banque Nationale Suisse; Italian: Banca Nazionale Svizzera; Romansh: Banca Naziunala Svizra.

The SNB is an Aktiengesellschaft under special regulations. About 55% of its shares are owned by public institutions like cantons and cantonal banks.^{[citation needed]} The remaining shares are traded on the stock market. They are mostly owned by private individuals.^{[citation needed]}

The Swiss National Bank has 2 head offices, one is in Berne and the other one in Zurich.

Contents 1 Governing Board 2 Gold reserves 3 WWII Controversy 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Governing Board

The Governing Board is made of 3 members:

• Chairman: Jean-Pierre Roth, Zurich
• Vice-Chairman: Philipp Hildebrand, Berne
• Member: Thomas Jordan, Zurich

[edit] Gold reserves

The SNB manages the official gold reserves of Switzerland, which as of 2008 amount to 1145 tonnes and are valued at 30.5 billion CHF.^[1] The gold is believed to be stored in huge vaults beneath the Federal Square (Bundesplatz) to the north of the federal Parliament building in Berne, but the SNB treats the location of the gold reserves as a secret.^[1] Independent confirmation of the gold's location was obtained by the Bernese newspaper Der Bund in 2008. It published a photograph of the bullion that a Keystone photographer was allowed to take at the SNB premises in Berne in 2001. Der Bund also quoted a retired official of the city's surveying office as saying that the gold vaults take up an area of roughly half the Federal Square and have a depth of dozens of meters, down to the level of the Aar river.^[1]

[edit] WWII Controversy

There is controversy over the role of the Swiss National Bank in the transfer of Nazi gold during World War II (see Nazi gold). 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."^[2] This was confirmed by the Swiss Bergier Commission in 1998 which concluded that the SNB received $440m in gold from Nazi sources, of which $316m is estimated to have been looted.^[3]

[edit] See also

• Economy of Switzerland
• Swiss franc

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

• Official site: Swiss National Bank
• Swiss and World Interest Rates, updated by ForexMotion.com.

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