Reiterates views on the currency. USDCHF trades at 0.9914. EURCHF at 1.0853

Other comments from his speech in Geneva:

  • intervening in foreign exchange market as required, is part of monetary policy
  • negative rates may hurt banks and investors, but important to guarantee long-term macroeconomic stability
  • short-term interest rates remain monetary policy tool, but FX interventions have been used.
  • Negative rates fundamental pillar of current policy, but do not represent long-term equilibrium
  • SNB prepared to intervene in Forex market
  • Due to safe haven status of the Swiss franc. The SNB has been active on the foreign exchange market
  • Pressure on the franc could rise in coming weeks, if the European Central Bank boost stimulus for the euro area

The SNB head seems to be paving the path of continued intervention should the ECB look to add more stimulus in their December meeting. Such action would weaken the EURCHF. The EURCHF reached a post-SNB depeg peak of 1.10486. The pair still has a ways to go to reach the 1.2000 level that the SNB supported prior to the de-peg.

The price of the EURCHF has moved lower since that peak - correcting 38.2% of the move up from the June low at 1.07646 (the low of 1.0757 on Oct 23 and Oct 26). The 100 day MA is at 1.0733.

As a result of the rise in the CHF, the SNB expects CPI prices to fall 1.2% in 2015 and 0.5% in 2016.