Swiss National Bank continued franc sales in second quarter

ZURICH, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank continued to sell Swiss francs in the second quarter of 2026, data showed on Wednesday, as the central bank maintained its "increased willingness" to intervene against the safe haven currency.

The SNB bought foreign currency worth 1.44 billion Swiss francs ($1.73 billion) between April and June.

The figure was a decline from 3.94 billion francs it bought in the first quarter, when the central bank said it was more ready to act against a rapid appreciation of the safe haven franc at the start of the Middle East conflict.

The SNB declined to comment on the latest data.

The smaller interventions in the second quarter probably represent the fade out of the SNB's larger foreign currency purchases in the first quarter, said EFG Bank economist Gianluigi Mandruzzato.

"The market action was going the SNB's way from April onwards and the franc was losing ground, so there was no need to carry on," he said.

He said following the recent decline in value of the franc - the currency lost 2.5% versus the euro and 3% versus the dollar in the third quarter - the SNB could change tactics and start buying francs to support the currency.

Forex interventions are flexible and quick to deploy, and mean the SNB can act before its next interest rates decision on December 10, Mandruzzato said.

Karsten Junius, an economist at J. Safra Sarasin, was surprised that the SNB had intervened at all in the second quarter, and said he believed the central bank was not currently active in the forex markets.

"At present the franc is probably fairly valued, which means interventions are not really needed," he said.

But in case the franc weakened further due to the interest rate differential with other central banks, the SNB could step in to support the currency to help against higher inflation from more expensive imported goods, he said.

($1 = 0.8333 Swiss francs)