SNB's Schlegel says that they are ready to be active in FX markets

SNB's Schlegel says that they are ready to be active in FX markets.

Readiness language of this kind is the SNB's standard instrument of verbal intervention and has historically preceded, substituted for, or accompanied actual balance sheet operations. The critical distinction is direction: the bank has run both sides of the franc over different cycles, accumulating reserves to lean against appreciation when inflation was too low and running them down to support the currency when imported inflation was the concern, so the remark only gains content once read against the prevailing inflation print and where the franc sits relative to the levels at which the bank last acted. Transmission runs through EUR/CHF and CHF crosses rather than the rates curve, though sustained intervention has historically bled into the sight deposit data published weekly, which is the customary tell for whether words have become flows. The SNB has a longer institutional history of active FX management than most peers and is generally taken at its word on willingness, which is why such comments tend to move the franc on their own before any operation is visible. Follow-ons are the weekly sight deposit figures, any shift in rhetoric from other board members, and the next policy meeting's framing of the exchange rate.