SNB, Bank of China establish bilateral currency swap line
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) have agreed to establish a bilateral currency swap line, bolstering access to trade finance in the Swiss franc and strengthening the international use of the yuan. The Swiss finance ministry in Bern said in a statement it “expressly” welcomed the step.
The agreement allows the two central banks to purchase and repurchase as much as 150 billion renminbi over the next three years, with the PBOC also granting the SNB an investment quota of 15 billion renminbi for the Chinese interbank bond market.
China started pushing for the wider use of the yuan outside the mainland in 2010 and is now loosening exchange-rate controls in an overhaul of its $9 trillion economy.
At the same time, Swiss banks are pushing for the country to become a center for yuan trading in Europe, as they are faced with the prospect of the loss of banking secrecy for offshore clients, and the SNB has amassed nearly 450 billion francs worth of foreign-exchange reserves as a result of its campaign to keep the franc weaker than 1.20 per euro.
Go to www.Youtube.com/deVereGroupchannel to watch the very latest deVere Group videos.