Challenges facing the Swiss National Bank
Institutional Communication Service
23 April 2018
During the global economic-financial crisis of 2008, the central banks of the main world economies played a decisive role. In fact, the crisis provoked widespread global pandemic scenarios, affecting real estate, financial, and currency markets. The subsequent intervention of the central banks revealed their essential role in preventing and dealing with such economic crises, within the limits of their institutional functions.
On May 2, USI Università della Svizzera italiana hosted, for the first time at the Lugano campus, Prof. Thomas J. Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), to discuss the current challenges facing the SNB. According to Prof. Jordan, the Swiss central bank faces five main challenges in implementing its institutional mandate (monetary policy aimed at price stability): (1) to operate in a small open economy with a safe-haven currency; (2) the ongoing low interest rate environment; (3) the imbalances on real-estate and mortgage markets; (4) the large balance sheet of the SNB; (5) the Sovereign money initiative (Vollgeld-Initiative).
The event was organised by the Institute of Economics at USI (IdEP), within the framework of the graduate degree programme in Economics and International Policies (MEPIN).
