Entscheidungsgrundlagen für ein neues Nationalbankgesetz

Thomas von Ungern-Sternberg

Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie from Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie

Abstract: The paper studies the profit distribution and portfolio management of the Swiss National Bank in comparison with the behavior of other European central banks. It is shown that the SNB's behavior is unique in a number of respects : Relatively to the countries size, it holds the largest gold reserves, the largest amount of unhedged dollar assets, and the largest amount of foreign assets. Futhermore, the SNB violates the spirit of the law and constitution by paying out only a very small share of its profits. The reture it has earned on its investments is unsatisfactory. We conclude that the law should be revised, the country should gradually sell its gold reserves, and the countries' assets shoud be invested more intelligently, preferably by private institutions.

Keywords: Swiss National Bank; portfolio management; gold stock; foreign asset management; profit distribution; return of investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E5 E58 E59 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 1997-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Thomas von Ungern-Sternberg , Reformbedürftige Nationalbank - Neue Impulse für eine alte Institution, Verlag Rüegger, Zürich, 1998, pp. 67-116

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lau:crdeep:9701

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