reliable conclusions to be drawn as to the risk distribution after the credit risk transfers. it can be concluded, though, that credit risks are borne by a larger number of market players than previously and that diversification possibilities are probably better utilised nowadays. in interbank business, too, more attention is being paid worldwide to default risks. a growing share of interbank business is hedged ; this is also the case in switzerland, where repo business has developed steadily. unhedged transactions still clearly account for the bulk of interbank business, but with an average volume of approximately sfr 20 billion, interbank repos, which were neglected for a long time, have grown to a respectable size. with respect to system stability, this development is favourable and should be further promoted. continuous linked settlement ( cls ) as regards credit risks in foreign exchange business, the launch of the cls system this autumn is a milestone achievement. cls bank, which has its headquarters in new york, serves as a platform to eliminate the so - called herstatt risk, i. e. the settlement risk inherent in foreign exchange deals. previously, the two legs of a foreign exchange transaction were settled at different times. if us dollars were bought against swiss francs, the franc amount was to be paid during european trading time. the corresponding amount in us dollars, however, was credited only a few hours later – during us trading time. in the few intervening hours, a credit risk existed. if a bank had been closed down during this time period, its counterparties might possibly have lost huge amounts of us dollar receivables. cls bank now makes it possible to settle foreign exchange transactions in the major currencies based on the « payment versus payment » principle, thereby eliminating the settlement risk for these transactions. currently, 42 financial institutions are directly linked to the system ( settlement members ) and settle their foreign exchange payments via cls in seven different currencies. one of these settlement currencies is the swiss franc. three swiss banks – ubs, cs and zurcher kantonalbank – participate in cls. apart from these three swiss banks, two other financial institutions – hsbc and bank of america – effect foreign exchange transactions in swiss francs via cls. every day, these five institutions together enter around 1, 400 payments in the amount of almost sfr 20 billion into cls. settlement takes place via a direct link between the swiss interbank clearing system ( sic )

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