Publications
Partners
Zurich - Switzerland’s biggest political party has called
for a special parliamentary session to debate the currency trade scandal
swirling around Philipp Hildebrand, the embattled central bank chief who vowed
on Thursday to fight accusations of wrongdoing.
A day after Hildebrand went before the media for an hour to
explain a controversial trade made by his wife just three weeks before the
Swiss National Bank (SNB) imposed a cap on the Swiss franc, national newspapers
kept up the pressure on him.
Hildebrand, a slick former hedge fund executive,
told the news conference on Thursday that he had learned only a day after the
fact that his wife had spent 400 000 Swiss francs ($423 800) to buy dollars
last August, and refused to step down.
The Swiss People’s Party (SVP), long a vocal critic of
Hildebrand and the SNB’s intervention in foreign exchange markets under his
charge, called on Friday for a special parliamentary session to examine the
case.
“It is unlawful and completely untenable that leaders of the
Swiss National Bank carry out currency actions also in their private affairs.
Philipp Hildebrand is no longer acceptable as chairman of the Swiss National
Bank,” the SVP said in a statement.
In practice it would be hard for the SVP to get a special
session as it would need to secure a majority in the lower and upper houses
for that.
Other political parties appeared satisfied with Hildebrand’s
performance and his promise to improve transparency at the central bank.
The government has also backed Hildebrand, who has been
under intense pressure since a Bank Sarasin employee leaked bank account
details of him and his wife, Kashya, showing the family had bought foreign
currencies very close to the time the SNB capped the soaring franc.
Switzerland guards bank client confidentiality jealously and
the employee is also in the firing line.
House raided
Sarasin has fired the IT worker and police in
the Swiss canton of Thurgau told Reuters on Friday they had conducted a
search of his house. The state prosecutor of the canton of Zurich said on
Thursday it was launching an investigation into the man.
According to the head of the SNB bank council, the bank
details were passed on to right-wing lawyer Hermann Lei, who has
close links to Christoph Blocher, a leading member of the SVP and Hildebrand’s
sharpest critic.
Blocher, who approached the Swiss government with his
concerns about the transactions at the end of last year, is due to hold a press
conference at 14:30 GMT.
Swiss media said Hildebrand had not ended the crisis with
his appearance on Thursday.
“It is simply hard to understand that in the middle of the
biggest currency crisis for decades, the president of the Swiss National Bank
would have no idea whether his wife was speculating on currency markets,” Swiss
newspaper St Galler Tagblatt wrote in an editorial.
Leading newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung called on the
central bank chief to publish the email sent by his wife ordering the dollar
transaction.
Tagesanzeiger said in an editorial that the affair had cut
Hildebrand down to size, but that he should stay in his post unless new harmful
revelations emerged.
“The Swiss public and in particular politicians will now debate whether a man with this flaw should still lead the central bank. If no new facts emerge then Switzerland would do well to not lose this head,” the Swiss newspaper wrote.
