The Swiss franc fell against the euro and the dollar on Thursday, with traders citing talk that the Swiss National Bank was adding liquidity via the currency forwards market. The Swiss franc had been edging higher against the euro for much of the Asian trading session, after the SNB's latest steps to curb franc strength, announced on Wednesday, fell short of expectations.
But the Swiss franc quickly retreated late in the Asian trading session against both the euro and the dollar. "SNB is in the forward market, I'm hearing," said a trader for a European bank in Singapore, adding that stop-loss selling of the Swiss franc helped add to its declines. Several other traders also cited talk that SNB was intervening in the forward market, although details were sketchy.
Such talk comes at a time when the SNB has been adding billions of francs in additional liquidity, pushing short-term interest rates down via the forwards. Its actions have pulled rates into negative territory. The SNB had stepped up its efforts to tame a runaway franc on Wednesday by announcing an expansion of its liquidity policy. The SNB said it would boost liquidity by expanding sight deposits to 200 billion francs from 120 billion, reiterating it would take additional steps if needed. The euro rose 0.5 percent against the Swiss franc to 1.1463, having risen to as high as 1.1515 francs earlier. The dollar climbed 0.7 percent to 0.7958, having risen to as high as 0.7991.
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