their risk positions and implemented key organisational measures for crisis management. the resilience of domestically focused banks is also good overall. thus, the regulations in place are particularly beneficial in the current environment given the high levels of uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis. at the same time, by focusing on the key aspects of capital, liquidity and resolution, regulations in switzerland are typically lean. this is because we believe it is important that market players in this country should be subject to as few constraints as possible regarding their activities and their business model. solid currency and price stability another pillar of a stable and attractive financial centre is a reliable currency. a reliable currency is one that holds its value over time, thereby ensuring price stability. cf. economic impact of the swiss financial sector, bak economics, 2019. page 3 / 5 our country has one of the most solid currencies in the world, namely the swiss franc. no other currency has retained its value so well since the outbreak of the first world war. nor has any other country kept average inflation lower than switzerland. but there is another side to this coin. in times of high uncertainty, the swiss franc tends to appreciate strongly, putting the economy under pressure and jeopardising price stability. we have witnessed this again recently. as a result, the snb has been faced with the challenge of using its monetary policy to guarantee price stability in switzerland. with the negative interest rate and our willingness to intervene in the foreign exchange market as necessary, we are able to counteract the attractiveness of swiss franc investments. our goal here is always to ensure appropriate monetary conditions in switzerland. in general, an overvalued swiss franc can pose a problem for the financial industry too. this is especially true for the important business of wealth management, where returns mainly accrue in foreign currencies, while costs are generally incurred in swiss francs. we are, of course, also aware of the challenge that the negative interest rate poses to the financial sector. we have therefore reduced the burden it places on the swiss banking system to the level necessary for the implementation of monetary policy. once again, i must also stress that the low interest rate environment is a global phenomenon with structural causes. this is unfortunately not something that switzerland can escape. political and institutional framework a further prerequisite for swiss financial service providers to compete on an international level is a sound political and institutional framework. switzerland has long had stable political relations, legal certainty

june is not related to the use of cash for payment purposes. the rise in interest rates has had no impact on the small denominations ( cf. chart 2 ). while the growth rate for the small denominations dipped during the pandemic, demand has rebounded since early 2022 and has stabilised. despite the general increase in the demand for cash, the use of cash for payments has declined in recent years. we are currently investigating changes in the use of cash as a payment method in our 2022 ‘ survey on payment methods ’. we will present the results in the spring of next year. page 2 / 2