BNS: Martin Schlegel will replace Thomas Jordan

Martin Schlegel, vice-president of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), will take the reins of this institution from October 1 in the place occupied for 12 years by Thomas Jordan, according to press releases published Wednesday by the SNB and the Federal Council Swiss.

Since the unexpected announcement in March of the departure of the current president of the Swiss Central Bank at the end of September, Mr. Schlegel was immediately seen as his most likely successor. Tradition dictates that the right-hand man generally succeeds the outgoing president.

Joining the BNS in 2003, Mr. Schlegel, 47, has spent his entire career there. Holder of a doctorate from the University of Basel, he worked in the analysis of financial and monetary markets before heading currencies and gold, then the BNS subsidiary in Singapore. He also participated in International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects. He has been vice-president of the BNS since August 2022.

Mr. Jordan has weathered many storms during his mandate, including the Covid-19 crisis and the collapse of Credit Suisse bank. Under his leadership, the SNB was also the first of the major Western central banks to cut interest rates in March, after a cycle of rate hikes almost everywhere in the world. The SNB lowered its key rate again in June.

The announcement in March of Mr Jordan’s impending departure sparked a lively debate among economists who contested the order of succession and called for reform of the institution, notably to give more space to women and green its investments.

On Wednesday, however, the Swiss Central Bank announced the appointment of Petra Tschudin, an economist until now an alternate member, as the third member of its general management. The vice-president will be Antoine Martin, current head of the 3rd department of the National Bank. These two appointments will take effect at the same time as that of the new president.

AFP

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