The Swiss central bank in 2015 had a substantial loss due to the development of its foreign exchange reserves.
The Swiss National Bank, the country's central bank based in Bern, in 2015 had a loss of approximately 23 billion francs, the institute said in a release today.
Foreign currency positions contributed 20 billion to the loss and the valuation loss on gold holdings amounted to 4 billion francs. Partly offsetting these positions was a profit of 1 billion on Swiss franc holdings.
Distribution of 1 Billion Francs
Despite the loss, the SNB will be able to distribute 1 billion francs to the federal government and the 26 cantons, because the distribution reserve still amounted to 27.5 billion.
The allocation to the provisions of currency reserves will be approximately 1.4 billion. After the dividend payment, the distribution reserve will amount to about 2 billion.
The central bank will report the final figures on March 4.
