Head Of Largest Swiss Cantonal Bank Says Swiss Capital Controls Are “Certainly Possible”
Yesterday, when we reported that the SNB had hinted at that most dreaded of possibilities for central planners, one which always implies full loss of central bank credibility, namely capital control, for some inexplicable reason various readers and even contributors (“Another misleading headline by the Tylers. What yellow journalism“) got offended that we dared to point out that the central bank which two days before it crushed FX traders by ending its CHF cap had sworn that “we are convinced that the minimum exchange rate must remain the cornerstone of our monetary policy.”
Turns out “yellow journalism” as some call it – usually those who have conflicts of interest and/or put trades in the opposite direction – was spot on once again. Because if yesterday, the SNB’s Jordan merely hinted at capital controls when as he was quoted by Bloomberg (not Reuters), as saying that capital controls “was not a measure that is at the forefront at the moment“,which as we explained “the best way to admit the possibility of capital controls is to not explicitly, and unequivocally reject them. That there is even a possibility of capital controls in a central bank’s arsenal, and everyone suddenly begins to pay attention” then today the head of the largest Swiss cantonal bank, and the fourth largest Swiss Bank, the Zurich Cantonal Bank or ZCB, came out and explicitly said what so many fear (and which warning they would ascribe to as the case may be “yellow journalism”), namely that “lowering Swiss National Bank’s already negative interest rate further or implementing capital controls would be “dramatic” but “certainly possible.”
This is what Zuercher Kantonalbank CEO Martin Scholl said in interview with newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung am Sonntag.
And just so readers (and so-called contributors) can blame the NZZ of fanning “yellow journalism” here is the explit quote from the interview:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
