![]() The SNB has also diversified across stock markets. Part of this is due to stocks increasing in value despite losses in recent months, as well as new purchases. In the last 12 months the SNB’s equity holdings have surged 41 percent to around 127 billion francs, according to Reuters calculations. ![]() On top of that, its stock portfolio has risen at roughly twice the rate of the overall balance sheet as it diversifies its holdings. The SNB’s balance sheet is now proportionately the biggest of any leading central bank. “The bond market is drying up and so they are going increasingly for equities.” “The SNB is in a bit of a corner, they have acquired a lot of foreign currency as part of their efforts to weaken the franc and they have to invest it somewhere,” said Alessandro Bee, an economist at UBS. While most analysts think the strategy is sound, this does expose the SNB to stock market risks that the likes of the European Central Bank and U.S. It is now the world’s eighth-biggest public investor, data from the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum show. Nevertheless this example illustrates how the Swiss National Bank has become a multi-billion-dollar equity investor due to its campaign to hold down the Swiss franc. The tech giant’s founder and CEO has other ways to control his company: Zuckerberg holds most of his stake in a different class of stock. “Switzerland’s central bank now owns more publicly-traded shares in Facebook than Mark Zuckerberg, part of a mushrooming stock portfolio that is likely to grow yet further.
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