The Swiss central bank's head in Singapore is returning to Zurich, where he has clinched a major promotion.
The Swiss government appointed Martin Reto Schlegel (pictured above) as an alternate member of the Swiss National Bank's governing board, according to a statement. Schlegel is currently in Singapore running the central bank's Asian trading floor. He takes over as the deputy head of the SNB's first department, which is run by central bank head Thomas Jordan.
The move represents a stratospheric career move for the 41-year-old Schlegel, who spent less than two years in Singapore after running the SNB's foreign exchange and gold trading activities previously. As a deputy, he will sit in on policymaking decisions and act as a sounding board for Jordan and the other two governors, Andrea Maechler and Fritz Zurbruegg.
He has impeccable credentials including a PhD in economics and, like Maechler, experience at the International Monetary Fund. Schlegel takes over from Thomas Wiedmer, the long-standing alternate governor who stepped down last month.
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Due to Jordan's public responsibilities as chairman of the SNB's governors, it is likely that Schlegel will have wide authority over running the first department, which oversees economic and international cooperation, and statistics.
While all three governors serve as public faces of the SNB, Jordan has had a far wider role in recent months. He successfully defended the central bank against a popular «real money» vote last month which sought to ban commercial banks from creating money through lending.
The Swiss central bank was the first non-Asian bank to open a branch in Singapore in 2013. The move came against the backdrop of currency interventions by the central bank to weaken the franc. Switzerland has also sought to diversify into Asian currencies, including Japanese yen, Korean won as well as Singapore and Australian dollars.
