ZURICH, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank on Tuesday posted a 12.04 billion franc ($13.36 billion) loss during the third quarter as the central bank lost money on its gold, foreign currency investments and Swiss franc positions.
The SNB lost 9.16 billion francs from its foreign currency positions during the three months to the end of September, as bond and equity prices fell amid concerns that global interest rates would remain higher for longer.
The SNB also made a valuation loss of 132 million francs from the 1,040 tonnes of gold it holds, as global gold prices fell.
In addition, the central bank reported a 2.66 billion franc loss from Swiss franc positions, partly as a result of interest paid to commercial banks.
During the first nine months of the year, the SNB paid 5.4 billion francs in interest to commercial banks for money they lodge with the central bank overnight.
On Monday, the SNB said it was
reducing
this interest after seeing soaring costs from the payments since negative rates turned positive in Sept. 2022.
As a result of the downturn in all three categories, the SNB's nine month profit shrunk to 1.7 billion francs from the 13.7 billion franc level reported for the first half of the year. ($1 = 0.9014 Swiss francs) (Reporting by John Revill, Editing by Friederike Heine)
