BERLIN (MNI) – Swiss National Bank president Philipp Hildebrand on
Thursday refused to resign over a currency trade made by his wife three
weeks before the central bank imposed a cap on the Swiss franc.
“Stepping down is not an issue for me,” Hildebrand said at a press
conference in Zurich.
The SNB president said he did not breach any regulations or laws,
stressing that his wife did not know about the SNB’s plan for a cap on
the Swiss franc when she bought some $500,000 on August 15 of last year.
Hildebrand strongly rejected claims by the Swiss weekly Weltwoche
that he personally conducted the currency deals and not his wife. He
said he could prove this.
Hildebrand acknowledged, though, that “that some of the
transactions now discussed and the way in which they have been portrayed
and interpreted in the media could bring my integrity into doubt.”
He announced that the transparency regulations of the central bank
will be improved.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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