MNI BRIEF: Call For SNB to Boost Payouts From Strong Profits

The Swiss National Bank should reevaluate the "excessive" level at which it currently holds central bank equity and ensure that all profits are distributed to the Swiss Confederation and cantons over the year, a new report by the SNB Observatory group argues.

The strong growth in the SNB's profits from its foreign investments over the past 10 years has corresponded with a fall in the share passed on to the public purse, authors Stefan Gerlach, Yvan Lengwiler and Charles Wyplosz write, making distributions "impossible in the long-run."

The report follows SNB chairman Thomas Jordan's April speech in which he said payouts should not be taken for granted, and called a recent decision to boost central bank distributions to CHF 6 billion a "balanced solution."