In times of economic crisis, should central banks retain their independence?
Like many central banks around the world, the Swiss National Bank has operational independence to set interest rates and intervene in the foreign exchange markets.
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But should there not be a measure of political control over actions taken by the bank and its head?
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Revelations emerge about central bank affair
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The bank revealed on Tuesday that the employee, who worked in the bank’s IT sector and who had subsequently handed himself over to police, had given the information to a lawyer with close links to the rightwing People’s Party. “According to the employee, this lawyer then arranged a meeting with [People’s Party deputy chairman] Christoph…
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Hildebrand and his wife Kashya have been accused of timing currency transactions to profit after the SNB set a minimum exchange rate for the franc against the euro. However, both the bank and the government have said that Hildebrand did no wrong. On Wednesday the SNB published its internal regulations on individual trading for board…
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He said he had no plans to resign and accused opponents of trying to exploit false allegations for political ends. Breaking his silence to counter a national uproar on Thursday, Hildebrand said he had acted according to the central bank’s internal rules in the United States dollar swaps, which came as he was spearheading efforts…
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