The Swiss central bank's profit rose to 41.4 billion Swiss francs ($45 billion) in the first nine months, from 26.3 million francs year-ago, it said in a statement on Friday. Its financial results vary widely due to its considerable foreign currency, gold, and other holdings; this year thus far, it took a 1.3 billion franc on its gold hoard, which is unchanged.

Its profit from foreign currency holdings – primarily euros, bought in market interventions in a bid to stem the rise of the franc against the European and other major currencies – stood at 42.2 billion francs.

By contrast, the SNB took in less from charging banks for holding big deposits of francs: this fell to 800 million francs in the first nine months, a drop of 186.5 billion. This comes in the wake of a relaxation to these measures afforded to banks during the pandemic