SNB's Tschudin says more willingness to intervene on FX if needed

SNB's Tschudin says more willingness to intervene on FX if needed.

Verbal intervention of this kind is the SNB's standard first move when the franc firm enough to threaten imported deflation; the bank has a longer and more credible history of direct FX operations than most major central banks, having alternated between negative rates and balance sheet expansion to lean against CHF strength across multiple episodes. The sequence in past cycles has run from rhetoric of this sort to visible growth in sight deposits, the tell that words have become purchases, and only rarely the other way. The distinction that matters is whether the comment reflects genuine discomfort with the pace of franc appreciation or routine reaffirmation of the standing toolkit; the former historically precedes actual balance sheet action, the latter fades without trace. Transmission runs through EUR/CHF and the franc's safe-haven correlation with risk sentiment, since SNB selling has typically been aimed at capping haven inflows rather than targeting a level, at least since the floor era ended. Worth watching: weekly sight deposit data, whether other Governing Board members echo the line, and whether CHF strength is flow-driven or rate-driven, as intervention has historically been reserved for the former. As jawboning rather than action, the signal is directional and cheap to issue.