Swiss central bank bought CHF75 million in foreign exchange in Q3

The Swiss National Bank purchased CHF75 million of foreign currency. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) intervened very cautiously in the foreign exchange market in the third quarter of 2025. Between July and September, it purchased foreign currency worth just CHF75 million ($94 million) in order to slow down the further rise of the Swiss franc.

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This is according to statistics on the SNB’s foreign exchange transactions published on Wednesday. The central bank announces its interventions for a given quarter at the end of the following quarter.

The SNB does not comment on its actions on the foreign exchange market itself. In its monetary policy assessments, it merely repeats that it is prepared to intervene on the foreign exchange market if necessary.

The interventions in the third quarter followed the key interest rate cut of a further 25 basis points to 0% in June. They also coincided with the US imposing heavy tariffs on Switzerland. On Switzerland’s national holiday on August 1, US President Donald Trump imposed a temporary tariff of 39% on Swiss exports to the US. However, the US tariffs had little impact on the Swiss franc-dollar exchange rate and did not noticeably weaken the Swiss franc at the time.

The SNB had intervened heavily in the previous quarter. In the second quarter, it purchased foreign currency worth over CHF5 billion. This move followed a period of five quarters of similarly modest intervention. In the first quarter of 2025, the figure was only CHF49 million, and in the fourth quarter of 2024, it was CHF103 million. For 2024 as a whole, the total was only CHF1.2 billion.

Adapted from German by AI/jdp

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