Deutsche Bank's outgoing chief risk officer Hugo Baenziger is the favourite to become the third board member of the Swiss National Bank, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung said on Sunday, without citing any sources. The newspaper said the SNB's supervisory bank council has submitted its choice to the Swiss government and that an announcement is expected in the next two weeks.
Acting chairman Thomas Jordan will take up this post permanently, SonntagsZeitung said. Former chief Philipp Hildebrand quit in January in a scandal over a lucrative currency trade made by his wife three weeks before the Swiss National Bank imposed the cap on the soaring franc at 1.20 per euro on September 6.
Jordan, Hildebrand's deputy was appointed interim chairman in January and is widely expected to get the job permanently. Some had worried that a delay in announcing the new permanent head of the SNB could tempt traders to challenge the cap on the value of the franc.
So far the SNB has been able to defend the level of 1.20, but there were calls over the weekend from Switzerland's Social Democratic Party (SP) to move the cap to 1.40 per euro to prevent Swiss jobs from being moved abroad.