The council that supervises the Swiss National Bank announced strict new rules on Monday to limit policymakers'' private financial dealings after former chief Philipp Hildebrand quit over a controversial currency trade by his wife. The SNB council set limits on trading for the central bank''s three board members, their deputies, other management figures and their families, recommending that they hand control of their finances to independent asset managers.
"In all cases, even where they have mandated an independent asset manager, members of SNB management are prohibited from making certain financial investments which could appear delicate in view of the central bank''s tasks," it said in a statement. "The new SNB regulations will be among the most restrictive of their kind at any central bank," it added.
The SNB council pledged to tighten the rules in January after Hildebrand resigned in an uproar over a lucrative foreign exchange trade his wife made just weeks before the SNB imposed a cap of 1.20 per euro on the soaring franc on September 6. Hildebrand, a former hedge fund manager who controlled his own portfolio, was not found to have broken the SNB''s old rules but was forced to step down after an email exchange with his banker suggested he had been aware of his wife''s trade. The Swiss parliament will hold a special session on Wednesday on the SNB and the Hildebrand affair, which will be heated but is unlikely to have any impact on policy or the SNB''s closely-guarded independence.
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