Needless to say, we have built up the relevant capacities and necessary know-how in this area. But the changes go much deeper. In simple terms, the growing importance of the exchange rate instrument has meant that the SNB has had to catch up rapidly with the structural changes that have taken place in the foreign exchange market in recent decades, especially in relation to the introduction of electronic trading. As you probably know, transactions on the spot and foreign exchange swap markets are now largely conducted on electronic platforms. Since 2010, we have been carrying out virtually all our foreign exchange transactions on such platforms. Electronic trading has made the foreign exchange market faster and more transparent. For instance, live streaming of prices enables market participants to precisely determine the price and the market conditions before a transaction is conducted. In order to take account of these changes, we use the latest techniques to carry out our transactions and implement our trading strategies. Electronic trading also brings advantages for the ex post analysis of transactions. For example, we are able to closely monitor individual foreign exchange transactions to gain insights into their effects and adapt our approach as necessary. Page 6/8  Overall, the foreign exchange market today is much more decentralised and the market participants far more heterogeneous than before. This means that the number and variety of market contacts required in order to understand the foreign exchange market and the demand for Swiss francs has also increased.
Speech  Embargo 17 November 2016, 6.30 pm  Financial markets and monetary policy implementation – an evolving relationship Money Market Event  Andréa M. Maechler Member of the Governing Board ∗ Swiss National Bank Geneva, 17 November 2016 © Swiss National Bank (speech given in French)  ∗ The speaker would like to thank Dirk Faltin and Martin Weder for their valuable support in drafting this speech. She also extends her thanks to Roman Baumann, Oliver Gloede and Marco Huwiler for their helpful comments, to Ramon Jud for preparing the data and to the SNB Language Services. Page 1/8  Ladies and gentlemen Welcome to the SNB’s Money Market Event in Geneva. It is a great pleasure for me to be able to address you here today for the second time. Last year, my speech centred entirely around monetary policy itself. Today, I would like to focus on its implementation in the financial markets. As you know, central banks in the advanced economies have expanded their monetary policy toolkits considerably since the peak of the global financial crisis in 2008. This has changed the way in which they act on the financial markets. Traditionally, the money market interest rate has been the key monetary policy variable. In the last few years, central banks have used unconventional measures to exert a more or less direct influence on other financial market prices as well. This was and is the only way to fulfil their mandate in difficult times.