SNB Sight Deposits w/e Aug 7th (CHF): Domestic 432.64bln (prev. 435.25bln), Total 462.4bln (prev. 465.2bln)

Weekly sight deposits are the SNB's most-watched proxy for FX intervention: rising balances signal franc-selling purchases of foreign assets, falling ones the reverse or simple balance-sheet rundown. This week's decline in both domestic and total deposits is a small move, well within the noise of routine flows, and therefore reads as an absence of intervention rather than evidence of franc-buying. Episodes that have genuinely repriced the franc in the past were those where deposits climbed sharply week after week, confirming active smoothing against appreciation; single-week declines of this size have historically carried no signal. The distinction worth drawing is between intervention-driven moves and mechanical fluctuations from government cash balances and repo operations, which only the cumulative trend separates. Follow-ons are next week's print for direction persistence, SNB officials' commentary on willingness to act, and EUR/CHF spot behaviour around politically sensitive levels, where the threshold for actual intervention has tended to be tested first.