When filling the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank with Martin Schlegel, the Federal Council decided on an internal candidate who fits well in the footsteps of the current President Thomas Jordan. But he didn’t leave it at that.
The Swiss National Bank has a new member of the Governing Board.
The independent Swiss National Bank (SNB) is the institution in Switzerland that, following the turmoil of the financial crisis, is rightly trusted by the population and whose actions have the greatest and most direct impact on markets and the economy. Accordingly, it is important who makes the decisions at the top.
At the SNB, this is not primarily a single governor, but a three-person body with his hitherto also three non-voting deputies. The body is currently chaired by Thomas Jordan, a qualified economist and proven macroeconomist who grew up within the SNB. He has proven to be extremely competent and combines international experience with modest reserve in an almost ideally Swiss way. At the same time, he has a very strong influence on the SNB internally. Most assume (and hope) that the 1963-born will complete his term of office, which runs until 2027. After the resignation of the previous Vice President Fritz Zurbrügg, who was almost the same age, the big question was who would inherit Jordan one day.
At the request of the Bank Council headed by Barbara Janom Steiner, the Federal Council did not – as some expected – elect a woman, but instead elected Jordan’s previous deputy in his first department, Martin Schlegel, to replace Zurbrügg. He has thus decided on an internal candidate with a similar profile to Jordan. Schlegel is an economist with a degree from the University of Zurich and a doctorate from the University of Basel. The competent macroeconomist with a regulatory compass has had a career at the SNB for two decades and gained international experience. He also dealt intensively with the financial markets.
Schlegel now has the best cards to inherit Jordan as President of the National Bank. Not only because the 1976-born is still relatively young, but also because the Federal Council, in a remarkable gesture, appointed him (and not Andréa M. Maechler, who was appointed to the Board of Directors from outside in 2015) as Vice President and thus number two in the three-person Board of Directors Has. The intention is obvious, it’s about one day replacing Jordan with someone who comes as close as possible to his profile.
On Wednesday, however, the Federal Council also sent a second surprising sign regarding the SNB. It had been discussed for a long time whether the size of the Board of Directors still met the requirements given the increasing tasks. In addition to the election of Schlegel, the Federal Council has now decided that in future the three departments of the SNB can have up to two (and not just one) deputies. And with Petra Gerlach and Attilio Zanetti (both names that were also traded as possible successors to Zurbrügg), he also appointed two long-serving employees of the SNB as new deputies to Jordan.
After several external elections in the recent past, this should be an encouraging sign for the majority of the SNB’s staff. The Bank Council and the Federal Council value the extensive expertise available within the SNB and occasionally complement this with external appointments.
It remains to be hoped that the three newly elected members will prove themselves in their new roles and will be able to ensure enough diversity and discussion in the SNB’s expanded Governing Board, even if their colleagues there were previously their superiors. In any case, with these elections, the SNB looks as solid and reliable as before – and the expanded Governing Board is somewhat broader.