Swiss deny currency manipulation after US bolsters monitoring

By John Revill

ZURICH, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank on Friday denied manipulating the Swiss franc after the U.S. Treasury kept Switzerland on a watch list of countries that might manage their currencies to win an "unfair" trade advantage.

The U.S. Treasury said it was strengthening its monitoring of foreign exchange practices, including interventions to resist both depreciation and appreciation against the dollar.

It did not accuse any major partners, but Switzerland was found to meet two of the three criteria for possible currency manipulation. However, its foreign currency interventions, calculated at around $7 billion in the 12 months to June 2025, were seen as "relatively modest".

The SNB said it had taken note of the U.S. report on trading partners' macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies, where Switzerland featured alongside nine other countries including China, Japan and Korea.

"The SNB does not engage in any manipulation of the Swiss franc," it said in a statement. "It neither seeks to prevent balance of payments adjustments nor to gain unfair competitive advantages for the Swiss economy."

It said it remained in contact with U.S. authorities to explain Switzerland's economic situation and monetary policy.

It also referred back to a joint statement from September in which the U.S. Treasury recognised that foreign exchange interventions were important for the SNB to meet its target of controlling inflation.

The SNB had remained on the sidelines for much of the period, only stepping up interventions in April 2025 to stem the franc's appreciation after President Donald Trump unveiled a barrage of global tariffs.

Karsten Junius, economist at J.Safra Sarasin, said he did not think SNB policy would change:

"The SNB is not acting to win an unfair advantage for the Swiss economy, but only seeking to neutralise an unfair disadvantage of a safe-haven currency, whose appreciation pushes inflation downwards."

SNB Chairman Martin Schlegel last week told Reuters foreign currency interventions and interest rates remained the bank's main tools to obey its legal mandate of keeping inflation between 0% and 2%.

In December, Schlegel said the central bank remained willing to be active in the foreign exchange markets "as necessary".