SNB’s U.S. Equity Portfolio Hits Record $97.5 Billion

(Bloomberg) --

The Swiss National Bank’s holdings of U.S. equities hit a record $97.5 billion at the end of last year, helped by surging markets.

As of the end of 2019, the holdings were up 3.6% from three months earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published on Thursday. The S&P 500 Index gained 8.5% in the fourth quarter.

A spokeswoman for the SNB declined to comment.

With the franc at close to a three-year high against the euro and Switzerland back on the U.S. Treasury’s watch list for FX manipulators, the SNB’s use of foreign-exchange interventions to stem appreciation pressure on its currency are once again coming into focus.

The SNB’s mountain of foreign exchange holdings -- 770.8 billion francs ($791 billion) at the end of 2019 -- is a consequence of its interventions, with 20% of that pile invested in stocks. However, the U.S. regulatory filing is one of the few pieces of information available about which companies the central bank actually has a stake in.

SNB officials have stressed that they don’t engage in stock picking and invest according to the criteria of security, liquidity and return.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Bosley in Zurich at cbosley1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss, Brendan Murray

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