Compliance
SNB President Vows To Stay In Post Amid Wife's Currency Trading Controversy
The controversy over Philipp Hildebrand, president of the Swiss National Bank, continued to swirl after he said he will stay in the job and did not abuse his position after his wife traded two currencies a few weeks before the SNB moved to cap the Swiss franc versus the euro.
“I acted not only according to the rules, but also in an appropriate manner,” he was quoted by media reports as saying yesterday at a press conference in Zurich.
His wife, Kashya Hildebrand spent SFr400,000 to buy $504,000 on 15 August, three weeks before the SNB capped the currency at €1.20, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers that was released yesterday by the central bank.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that an employee of Basel-based private bank Sarasin, had been arrested after leaking private data relating to Hildebrand’s family.
The stolen data, concerning the currency transactions, was handed by the employee to a lawyer with close links to the Swiss People’s Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP). The SVP is a right-wing party which has been a critic of the management style of the bank. According to the employee, who worked in IT support, this lawyer then arranged a meeting with National Councillor Christoph Blocher, which took place on 11 November 2011. Blocher is the former leader of the SVP who still has a heavy involvement in the party.
Sarasin said that the employee had handed himself over to Zurich Cantonal Police on 1 January 2012, and admitted his criminal misconduct to the bank yesterday.
The employment relationship between Bank Sarasin and the employee has been terminated with immediate effect.
The 15 August trade, which Kashya Hildebrand carried out without her husband’s knowledge, reports said, was described as “sensitive” by the investigators. The PricewaterhouseCoopers probe was commissioned by the SNB Bank Council, the central bank’s supervisory body, which made a statement on 23 December exonerating Hildebrand and his family.
“I am not aware of any breach of laws. But I understand that the public is having some questions,” Hildebrand said at the press conference. He joined the central bank in 2003, becoming its youngest ever policy maker, and took over as president in January 2010.
