- pierre roth, an internal seminar on the history of the swiss currency in the 19th and 20th centuries was organised in the autumn of 2008 and in the spring of 2009. it became clear that no work yet existed which covered the entire period of the history of the swiss franc. it was this realisation that laid the foundation for this book. the book was ultimately written by expanding on the material derived from the internal seminar. as you will be able to conclude for yourself after reading the work, the result can certainly be considered a resounding success. the book by professor baltensperger is a beautifully illustrated work with fascinating contents. it is not only an attractive book, but is also a very valuable working tool. a special feature of this history of the swiss currency is that it was not written by a historian, but from the perspective of a monetary theorist. nevertheless, the author is not only an outstanding monetary theorist and academic teacher, he also has rich practical experience hans von keler, * 1925, german theologist. bis central bankers ’ speeches as an economic policy advisor. the snb ’ s governing board would like to thank ernst baltensperger for having made such a significant contribution to the understanding of the swiss franc. we would also like to thank the publishing house, nzz libro, and all the individuals participating in this project for their careful handling and publishing of this book. it is now my pleasure to give the floor to hans - peter thur. bis central bankers ’ speeches

money market interest rates were insensitive to additional injections of liquidity due to the effective lower bound, these are likely to respond with greater force to the contraction of liquidity that will be associated with the reduction of central banks ’ assets. 7. rostagno, m., altavilla, c., carboni, g., lemke, w., motto, r. and saint guihem, a. ( 2021 ), “ combining negative rates, forward guidance and asset purchases : identification and impacts of the ecb ’ s unconventional policies ”, working paper series, no 2564, ecb. 8. evidence shows that lowering the deposit facility rate into negative territory has exerted more pronounced effects at longer maturities than standard rate cuts in positive territory, by lowering the perceived effective lower bound ( elb ) and fostering further portfolio rebalancing as investors tried to avoid negative cash flows ( see rostagno, m. et al., ibid. and altavilla et al 2022 ). 9. see quas, a., mason, c., compano, r., gavigan, j. and testa g. ( 2021 ), “ tackling the scale - up gap - evidence and impact of the scale - up financing gap for innovative firms in europe and reflections on potential solutions ”, european commission, jrc science for policy report, and ferrando, a., pal, r. and durante e. ( 2019 ), “ financing and obstacles for high growth enterprises : the european case ”, european investment bank, working papers 2019 / 03. 10. there is no unique definition of the cash - flow channel in the literature, as this channel embeds a variety of mechanisms that are each the subject of a specific literature. for example, the term “ cashflow channel ” itself began as reference to households and adjustable - rate mortgages ( di maggio, m., kermani, a., keys, b. j., piskorski, t., ramcharan, r., seru, a. and yao, v. ( 2017 ), “ interest rate pass - through : mortgage rates, household consumption, and voluntary deleveraging, ” american economic review, vol. 107, no 11, pp. 3550 - 88 ; floden, m., kilstrom, m., sigurdsson,