SNB currency reserves: what the monthly figure says about intervention

SNB currency reserves are the foreign currency and gold that the Swiss National Bank holds, and the monthly figure is the first public hint each month of whether the bank has been buying or selling foreign currency. The franc reacts when the change points to intervention the market had not expected, because those purchases and sales are how the SNB leans against the exchange rate.

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By Mike. Explanation updated 2 Oct 2026; the dates and moves below update with the research.

SNB currency reserves in short

Next release: Not on our calendar yet. It appears once the date is confirmed.
Published by: Swiss National Bank
When: Monthly, in the IMF SDDS Plus data set that the SNB updates on its data portal by the 7th of the month at the latest, at 9:00 in the morning Swiss time. That is 9:00 in Amsterdam as well, all year. The figure is for the end of the month before.
Currency: Swiss franc (CHF)
Impact: Medium: it moves the currency when it surprises
The line read first: Foreign currency reserves in francs, against the month before
Covers: The end of the month before; the latest month is provisional
Actual interventions: Published once a quarter, about a quarter later, as the SNB's foreign exchange transactions
Faster signal: Sight deposits at the SNB, every week on the first working day at 10:00

What the SNB currency reserves figure contains

Currency reserves are mostly foreign exchange reserves: bonds, equities and deposits in foreign currency at central banks and the Bank for International Settlements. The rest is gold, which the Federal Constitution requires the SNB to hold in part.

The monthly table on the SNB data portal lists foreign currency reserves, gold, the IMF reserve position and special drawing rights, in millions of francs. The market reads the foreign currency line, usually quoted in billions.

The reserves are held mostly in euros and US dollars, with smaller parts in yen, pounds and Canadian dollars. A share is invested in equities.

Why SNB currency reserves move the franc

The franc is a safe haven, so it tends to rise when investors look for safety. From 2009 the SNB bought foreign currency, at times on a large scale, to fight an excessive rise of the franc, and those purchases built up the reserves.

The SNB pays for foreign currency with newly created francs. When it sells foreign currency, as it did on balance in 2022 and 2023, the reserves shrink.

A rise in reserves that exchange rates and markets cannot explain suggests the SNB has been buying, which tells the market the bank is leaning against franc strength. A fall points the other way.

How to read the reserves figure

The SNB itself warns that changes in its foreign exchange reserves cannot automatically be put down to purchases or sales. Exchange rates and the prices of the bonds and shares it holds move the total as well.

So check the month first. A weaker franc against the euro and the dollar, or rising stock and bond markets, raises the value of the reserves in francs without a single purchase, and the reverse lowers it. The latest month is also provisional, because the SNB only carries out a full valuation of its balance sheet at the end of each quarter.

The hard numbers come later. The SNB publishes its foreign exchange transactions per quarter, with purchases as positive values and sales as negative ones, about a quarter after the quarter ends.

Between the monthly figures, the market watches the sight deposits that banks hold at the SNB, published every week on the first working day at 10:00. The francs the SNB pays for foreign currency end up there, so a jump can be an early sign, although other SNB operations move them too.

What the Swiss franc did on the last release days

Our calendar keeps the exact time of each release since 16 September 2026. The first SNB currency reserves after that date will show here with the Swiss franc's move around it.

For scale: on an ordinary day the Swiss franc moves 0.17% against the basket from one London opening to the next, either way, on average over the 250 trading days since 14 Oct 2025.

The forecast, the figure itself and what it changed in our view of the currency are in the app, next to the research.

Questions about SNB currency reserves

When are the SNB currency reserves published?

Monthly, by the 7th of the month at the latest, at 9:00 in the morning Swiss time, which is 9:00 in Amsterdam too. When the 7th falls on a weekend, the update comes a day or two earlier.

Does a rise in SNB reserves mean the SNB intervened?

Not necessarily. Exchange rates and the prices of the bonds and shares in the reserves also change the total. Only what is left after those effects hints at purchases or sales.

Where does the SNB publish its actual interventions?

On its data portal, in a quarterly table of foreign exchange transactions. Positive values are purchases of foreign currency and negative values are sales, published about a quarter after the quarter ends.

Why does the SNB intervene in the franc?

Because the exchange rate is part of the monetary conditions it steers. A franc that rises too far pushes down import prices and inflation, so the SNB may buy foreign currency to lean against it, and it can sell in the opposite case.