have contributed towards switzerland being able to avoid a credit crunch in the past few months. page 3 / 4 zurich, 17 december 2020 thomas jordan news conference it will take some time yet before the economy recovers, and uncertainty will remain high for the time being. we will therefore be seeking to do our utmost with our monetary policy to ensure price stability and to contribute to the economic recovery. climate change and the snb i would now like to talk about the significance of climate change for the snb. we have been working intensively on this topic for some time now. we want to properly assess possible consequences of climate change for the economy, for financial stability, and for the management of our foreign exchange reserves in order to ensure that we can fulfil our statutory mandate at all times. to this end, we also collaborate with other central banks, in particular in the network for greening the financial system ( ngfs ), and we work together closely with finma. as regards monetary policy, we are continuously deepening our analysis into how climate change could affect economic growth and inflation. the dialogue with other central banks is particularly important in this area. when it comes to financial stability, the snb focuses its efforts on determining the impact of climate risks on the stability of the swiss banking system. in a joint pilot project with finma, the snb is currently identifying the concentrations of risk of switzerland ’ s largest two banks in respect of sectors exposed to higher transition risks, i. e. possible implications of future amendments to laws. with regard to our investment policy, in connection with the issue of climate change, we have decided to make an adjustment to our exclusion criteria. since 2013, we have already been excluding investments in companies that cause severe environmental damage, violate human rights or produce condemned weapons. with these exclusion criteria, we ensure that our investment policy reflects the fundamental and broadly accepted values held in switzerland. we are now expanding the exclusion criterion pertaining to the environment by additionally taking climate - related issues into consideration. in switzerland, a broad consensus has formed in recent years in favour of phasing out coal. we have therefore decided that we will from now on exclude all companies primarily active in the mining of coal from our portfolios. ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. it is now my pleasure to give the floor to fritz zurbrugg. page 4 / 4

news conference zurich, 17 december 2020 thomas jordan introductory remarks by thomas jordan ladies and gentlemen it is my pleasure to welcome you to the swiss national bank ’ s news conference. owing to the coronavirus pandemic, we can unfortunately only meet virtually today. the pandemic is placing a very heavy burden on people across the world, and switzerland is no different. our sympathies go in particular to those who have fallen ill themselves or who have lost relatives and friends. in my remarks, i will begin by explaining our monetary policy decision and our assessment of the economic situation. i will then discuss the topic of climate change and the snb. fritz zurbrugg will report on developments in the area of financial stability and the impact of the pandemic on the demand for banknotes. andrea maechler will then comment on the situation on the financial markets and will look at the upcoming replacement of the chf libor with saron. we will – as ever – be pleased to take your questions afterwards. monetary policy decision the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to have a strong adverse effect on the economy. against this difficult backdrop, we are maintaining our expansionary monetary policy with a view to stabilising economic activity and price developments. we are keeping the snb policy rate and interest on sight deposits at the snb at −0. 75 %. in light of the highly valued swiss franc, we remain willing to intervene more strongly in the foreign exchange market. in so doing, we take the overall exchange rate situation into consideration. furthermore, we are supplying generous amounts of liquidity to the banking system via the snb covid - 19 refinancing facility ( crf ). the snb ’ s expansionary monetary policy provides favourable financing conditions, counters upward pressure on the swiss franc, and contributes to an appropriate supply of credit and liquidity to the economy. page 1 / 4 zurich, 17 december 2020 thomas jordan news conference inflation forecast in the current situation, the inflation outlook remains subject to high uncertainty. the new conditional inflation forecast through to the end of 2021 is slightly lower than in september. this is primarily due to the renewed deterioration in the economic situation as a result of the second wave of the pandemic. in the longer term, the inflation forecast is unchanged from september. the forecast for 2020 is negative ( −0. 7 % ). the inflation rate is likely to be higher again next year ( 0. 0 % )