outset that the initial contribution to the foundation would be in the form of a 500 tonnes gold donation by the snb. it thus became fully clear that switzerland was going to demonetise gold and to progressively transform a part of its stock into interest bearing assets. but why did we decide to fund the foundation with gold and not with other assets? in order to understand this, one must take a closer look at the structure of the snb ’ s balance sheet. 2. from revaluation of the gold stock to gold sales 2. 1. the snb ’ s balance sheet if, in relative terms, switzerland is leading among all industrialised countries as far as gold holdings are concerned, the swiss national bank is also a special case with respect to the structure of its balance sheet. the bulk of the snb ’ s assets consist of foreign exchange and gold. swiss franc denominated assets constitute a mere 20 % of the total. compared to the balance sheets of the bundesbank prior to the introduction of the euro, the snb ’ s balance sheet exhibits only a small proportion of domestic assets ( see graph 3 ). graph 3 assets structure of the bundesbank and the swiss national bank 20 % 54 % 50 % 30 % 30 % 14 % buba gold snb foreign claims domestic claims other assets on the liabilities side, the most striking feature are the bank ’ s own capital and reserves to which will be added the revaluation gain on the gold stock ( see graph 4 ). graph 4 simplified balance sheet of snb as of 31th december 1998 in billion dollars with gold at market price assets liabilities gold holdings & claims on gold claims in foreign currencies claims in swiss francs total monetary base liabilities towards the confederation gold provision capital, reserve & provisions total two arguments justify a transfer of gold reserves : firstly, the existence of considerable capital resources within the snb balance sheet shows that we are endowed with more reserve assets than necessary from a monetary point of view. there is no example of a central bank of a g10 country with such a proportion of capital and undistributed profits in its balance sheet ( see graph 5 ). graph 5 estimate of g10 central banks ’ net wealth in proportion of gdp united states germany france i taly switzerland netherlands japan united kingdom belgium sweden canada 0 % 5 % 10 % 15 % 20 % the question therefore naturally arises whether the moment has not come to allocate a part of the bank ’

speech embargo 15 april 2021, 4. 00 pm covid - 19, financial markets and digital transformation money market event andrea m. maechler and thomas moser member of the governing board / alternate member of the governing board ∗ swiss national bank webcast, 15 april 2021 © swiss national bank, zurich, 2021 ∗ the speakers would like to thank dirk faltin, cyrille planner and nicolas stoffels for their support in drafting this text. their thanks also go to benjamin anderegg, roman baumann, william boye, lucas fuhrer, sebastien kraenzlin, christoph meyer, christian myohl, carolin reiss, peter thuring and snb language services. page 1 / 10 ladies and gentlemen – good afternoon. my colleague thomas moser and i welcome you to the snb ’ s money market event. a year ago, we had to cancel this event in zurich at short notice because of the covid - 19 pandemic. unfortunately, covid - 19 restrictions still prevent face - to - face gatherings, but we are delighted to be able to greet you this year in a virtual setup. the pandemic has affected us all, but the costs are unevenly distributed. the economic costs are being borne disproportionately by the services sector and society ’ s most vulnerable groups. the ability to work from home is highly correlated to income, so the risk of income loss or job loss has been much higher among lower - income groups. in many ways, the crisis is unprecedented. the economic shock has been global and massive, affecting both economic supply and demand simultaneously. for policymakers this has created enormous challenges, as it has for firms, which have had to adjust almost overnight. technology – the internet in particular – has proved indispensable for remote working, commerce and education. digital laggards have had to invest in appropriate technologies, such as video conferencing, and accelerate the digitalisation of their customer interfaces and supply chains. because of this significant investment, remote work and e - commerce will probably remain more common after the covid - 19 crisis ends. the pandemic is thus likely to have accelerated the trend towards a digital economy. one obvious example, which is relevant for central banks, is payments. although cash payments are still very common in switzerland, online payments and contactless payments have significantly increased because of the pandemic. we can see similar trends in other areas of