SNB POSTS RECORD PROFIT

The Swiss central bank has had a record profit in 2017, helped by a weakening of the country’s currency against the euro.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) expects a profit of about 54 billion Swiss francs for 2017, the bank said in a statement today. The bank in 2016 had a profit of 24.5 billion francs. Most of last year’s profit was generated by gains on foreign currency positions, which reached 49 billion francs.

The central bank will distribute 2 billion francs to the federal and regional governments of Switzerland. Half of the profit allocation is a special bonus only paid out because the profit exceeded 20 billion francs. The federal government will receive 670 million francs, while the regions stand to get 1.33 billion francs.

The SNB also said it had a valuation gain of about 3 billion francs on its gold holdings. The net result on Swiss franc positions was 2 billion francs. The bank will report detailed figures on 2017 on March 5, 2018.