thomas jordan : currency reserve adjustments, the sic payments system and financial market developments introductory remarks by mr thomas jordan, member of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the half - yearly media news conference, berne, 14 june 2007. * * * in my remarks, i would like to address three topics. first, i will speak about the adjustments in the composition of our currency reserves. then, i would like to comment on the swiss interbank clearing ( sic ) payment system and its twenty years of existence. at the end, i will say a few words about developments in the financial markets. 1. adjustments in the composition of currency reserves the swiss national bank is adjusting the composition of its currency reserves. before the end of september 2009 it will sell 250 tonnes of gold and increase its foreign exchange reserves by a corresponding amount. the overall level of currency reserves will remain unchanged. the gold sales fall within the bounds set by the second gold agreement of 8 march 2004, in which the central banks of the eurosystem, plus the sveriges riksbank and the swiss national bank, agreed to limit their gold sales over a period of five years, beginning on 28 september 2004. the gold agreement specifies that annual sales by all signatories may not exceed 500 tonnes and that the total sales volume over this period shall not amount to more than 2, 500 tonnes. for the gold sales it was planning, the snb was allocated a quota not claimed by other central banks that were party to the agreement of 2004. the snb has chosen an approach for its gold sales that will avoid market unrest, with regular sales transactions. the swiss national bank holds currency reserves in the form of foreign currency and gold, thereby ensuring that it has room for manoeuvre in its monetary policy at all times. as a result of the sharp rise in the price of gold, the proportion of the currency reserves held as gold has increased by about a quarter since mid 2005, from 33 % to the current level of 42 %. the purpose of the snb's gold sales is to rebalance the composition of currency reserves with respect to its monetary policy requirements. moreover, by reducing its gold reserves and increasing its foreign exchange reserves, the overall risk on snb assets will decline. once the sales have been completed, the swiss national bank's gold holdings will amount to some 1, 040 tonnes. 2. swiss interbank clearing ( sic ) to celebrate its 20th anniversary over the next

how we have supervised firms in practice over the past few years, we have brought it all together for the first time so that the mountain path ahead is clear to you all. i won ’ t set out the entire supervisory regime now. but i did want to draw your attention to three changes introduced by the cp, all relating to capital, and which are designed to deliver a clear path from being a new bank at base camp to being established and on the way to the summit. first, we are proposing to update how we calculate the capital buffer requirement for new banks. to date this has been based on an unspecified wind down cost calculation. but interpretation by banks has ( understandably ) been inconsistent, so we are proposing to move to a clear and consistent policy of setting the buffer as six months of operating expenses. this should be enough to allow banks time to find alternative sources of capital or to change their business model if investor support is lost. but we still expect new banks to maintain capital resources to support their business for 12 months ahead ( whilst remaining above the operating expenses buffer ), the reason for which brings me to the second change ; scanning the horizon, 24 / 05 / 19 – https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / speech / 2019 / sam - woods - building - society - association - annualconference - london all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches and @ boe _ pressoffice whilst we recognise that obtaining regular new capital is often necessary for new and growing businesses, we are calling an end to ‘ just in time ’ capital planning. instead, we expect any new equity to be injected well before a firm hits its buffers and for there to be a path to the point at which the bank will be self - sufficient in capital generation. if we observe evidence of ineffective capital planning, we will increase our supervisory intensity and consider whether further action is required. it is unsustainable for a firm to remain near base camp making losses forever. and persistent problems mean we may need to shift our focus to considering other routes down the mountain ( as i will explain later ) ; and finally growing banks are expected to develop their stress - testing capabilities so that they are ready to transition to full stress - test based buffer requirements once they reach maturity ( typically but not necessarily five years after authorisation without restrictions ). this has the potential to result in a sizeable step - up in capital