"As a consequence of the realignment of the financial centre and the planned withholding tax, we assume that a total of hundreds of billions of francs will flow out of Switzerland"
- Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS wealth management
The amount of cash Swiss commercial banks hold with nation's central bank rose slightly in the week to October 26, a sign that investors are getting less anxious over Eurozone's financial woes. Sight deposits of domestic banks jumped to 293.309 billion francs last week, up from 292.163 billion a week earlier. Despite the improvement, the tendency remains negative, proving that the SNB is likely to have less cash to spend to defend the 1.20 per euro cap.
"As a consequence of the realignment of the financial centre and the planned withholding tax, we assume that a total of hundreds of billions of francs will flow out of Switzerland," said Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS wealth management.
"The actions of the ECB have had the effect of buying some additional time for the governments and it is the governments that need to step in and take the bold, necessary, political decisions in order to restore stability," said former European Central Bank policymaker Athanasios Orphanides.
The Swiss blue-chip index SMI, a measure of the largest and most actively traded companies, added 0.01 per cent to 6,601.42. The broader Swiss Performance Index fell 0.05 per cent to 6,093.86.
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