Switzerland's foreign exchange reserves hit a record high in January, data showed, suggesting its central bank is still actively curbing the franc with interventions one researcher estimated at close to 2 billion francs per day. The figures are the first to show changes in the Swiss National Bank's currency holdings since it surprised financial markets in mid-January by scrapping its more than three-year-old cap of 1.20 francs against the euro.
The SNB later said maintaining that policy would have cost 100 billion francs ($109 billion) to defend in January alone. But Friday's reserves data suggested that, even without the cap, the bank spent more than half that sum last month keeping a lid on the franc, according to calculations by Ralf Wiedenmann, head of economic research at Vontobel Asset Management.
A spokesman for the SNB declined to comment on possible currency interventions. The central bank said it held 498.398 billion francs ($541.5 billion) in foreign currency at the end of January, compared with a revised 495.130 billion francs - the previous record high and equivalent to around three quarters of gross domestic product - at end December.