What it is
The currency of Switzerland, also used in Liechtenstein. It belongs to a small, open and prosperous economy that sits in the middle of the euro area without being part of it.
Who issues it
The Swiss National Bank issues the franc and sets monetary policy through its Governing Board. It has said many times that it is prepared to be active in the foreign-exchange market when it judges that necessary.
How it is commonly described
- Safe haven
- Commonly bought when investors are cautious. The label describes past behaviour; it does not say what happens next time.
- Funding currency
- Often borrowed, when its interest rates are low, to hold assets that pay more elsewhere.
Switzerland has a long record of low inflation, political stability and neutrality, and the franc has commonly been bought in periods of stress. Because Swiss interest rates have usually been low, it has also been used as a currency to borrow in.
These are descriptions people use, drawn from how the currency has commonly behaved. They are not promises about how it will behave.
What typically moves it
- Risk appetite: caution in world markets has often meant demand for francs
- Swiss National Bank policy, including its readiness to buy or sell foreign currency
- Conditions in the euro area, Switzerland’s main trading partner
- The gap between Swiss interest rates and those abroad
These are the things people who follow this currency usually watch. They explain how the market works; they do not say what the exchange rate will do next.
The scheduled releases to know
- Monetary policy assessmentPublished by Swiss National BankExplainer: Rates
- Consumer Price IndexPublished by Federal Statistical OfficeExplainer: CPI
- Gross Domestic ProductPublished by State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)Explainer: GDP
- KOF Economic BarometerPublished by KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich
No dates or figures are shown here: each publisher’s own calendar is the authority. The explainers are in Economic Events; a release without a link has no explainer on this site yet.
Its main session
London. The franc is busiest in European hours. Swiss data and the National Bank’s announcements arrive in the Zurich morning.
At GIO4X
GIO4X lists one currency pair that contains the Swiss franc. Each pair’s contract and published conditions are on its instrument page, where they are labelled as indicative. They are not repeated here.
A short history
The franc became the single currency of Switzerland in 1850, after the federal constitution of 1848, replacing the coinages of the cantons. The Swiss National Bank began operating in 1907. In September 2011 it set a minimum exchange rate for the franc against the euro, and it ended that policy without warning in January 2015, a day of very large moves in franc pairs.
Words worth knowing
A reference page. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade. It gives no exchange rate, no interest rate and no forecast.