At 0714 GMT the franc was down 2.84 percent against the euro, trading at 1.1397 francs to the euro, and down 2.4 percent against the greenback to trade at 0.7964 francs per dollar.

Last week the franc had flirted with parity against the euro, at 1.007 francs per euro, and had reached a record 0.7069 against the dollar.

On Thursday the Swiss National Bank said that it was keeping open all options to bring down the safe-haven currency, including temporarily pegging it to the euro as well as imposing a negative interest rate.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011