(Bloomberg) — Switzerland’s government hasn’t yet discussed a possible successor for the vacant seat on the central bank’s three-member governing board.
(Bloomberg) — Switzerland’s government hasn’t yet discussed a possible successor for the vacant seat on the central bank’s three-member governing board.
“It hasn’t been a topic,” chief spokesman Andre Simonazzi told Bloomberg on Wednesday in Bern after the executive’s first meeting following a six-week summer break.
The appointment has been on the government’s radar since March, when the Swiss National Bank announced that Andrea Maechler would be departing at the end of June. The SNB’s supervisory Bank Council proposes candidates, though the executive doesn’t have to follow that recommendation in its final decision.
Simonazzi provided no explanation for the delay in the appointment.
The lack of action might suggest that the government has yet to receive an official recommendation. Finding a replacement always looked like a challenge: Maechler was both the first and only woman on the SNB’s top panel and the sole official not to come from a German-speaking region of Switzerland.
In the interim, alternate SNB board member Thomas Moser — who was Maechler’s deputy — has stepped in to head the department in charge of money markets and foreign exchange.
Moser would also be eligible to vote on interest rates, which means that if a new board member isn’t in place on time, he’d have a say at the Sept. 21 policy decision.
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