Swiss National Bank Reports CHF 44.2bn Nine-Month Profit, 3.5 Times a Year Earlier

By The Edge Research Team

The Swiss National Bank reported a CHF 44.2 billion ($53.8 billion) profit for the first nine months of 2026, almost all of it from its foreign currency positions.

The result already tops the Bank’s CHF 26.1 billion profit for the whole of 2025 by CHF 18.1 billion. For the Confederation and the cantons that matters directly: under a new agreement, their payout rises with the year-end net profit. The Bank’s own caveat sits beside it, since strong fluctuations are to be expected and “only provisional conclusions are possible” about the annual result.

The figures come from the Bank’s ad hoc announcement “Interim results of the Swiss National Bank as at 30 September 2026”, published at 06:15 GMT on 30 October. The foreign currency positions earned CHF 43.3 billion. Gold added a valuation gain of CHF 1.2 billion, and the Swiss franc positions CHF 0.1 billion.

A year earlier the same nine months produced a profit of CHF 12.6 billion, so this year’s result is 3.5 times as large. In the first nine months of 2025, a CHF 22.9 billion gain on gold offset a CHF 9.0 billion loss on the currency positions. This year the two lines swapped places.

Exchange rate gains outweigh a CHF 22.6 billion loss on interest-bearing paper

Exchange rate-related gains of CHF 29.8 billion made up the largest part of the currency result. A year earlier the same line showed losses of CHF 46.3 billion, a swing of CHF 76.1 billion.

This line records the change in the franc value of the foreign currency reserves, which rises when the currencies they are invested in gain against the franc. The interim release does not break it down by currency; the Bank’s monetary policy assessment of 24 September referred to a weakening of the Swiss franc.

Equity securities and instruments added price gains of CHF 23.7 billion, close to the CHF 23.1 billion of a year earlier. Interest-bearing paper went the other way: price losses of CHF 22.6 billion, against gains of CHF 3.2 billion in the first nine months of 2025.

Income on the portfolio grew. Interest income rose 13.8% to CHF 10.7 billion. Dividend income was CHF 2.3 billion in both years, and interest expenses CHF 0.7 billion.

Foreign currency positions, first nine months (in CHF billions)

Figures as printed in the Bank’s interim results as at 30 September 2025 and 30 September 2026; price gains and losses on interest-bearing paper and on equity securities and instruments, and exchange rate-related results, as the releases name them. Components are rounded and may not add to the total.

The third quarter adds CHF 19.0 billion, less than a year earlier

Set against the 30 June figures, the third quarter alone produced a profit of CHF 19.0 billion. The second quarter had produced CHF 25.7 billion, after a first-quarter loss of CHF 0.5 billion.

That is 31.9% below the third quarter of 2025, which earned CHF 27.9 billion. Gold supplied CHF 14.3 billion of that earlier quarter’s result, against CHF 7.6 billion this time.

The mix inside the quarter shifted sharply. Exchange rate-related gains reached CHF 27.3 billion in the three months, 91.6% of the nine-month total.

Price losses on interest-bearing paper were concentrated in the same period: CHF 20.9 billion, or 92.5% of the nine-month loss. Equities added CHF 0.8 billion, after CHF 29.2 billion in the second quarter.

Interest income rose in each quarter of the year, from CHF 3.2 billion in the first to CHF 4.0 billion in the third.

Results by quarter (in CHF billions)

FX is the result on foreign currency positions; Gold is the valuation result on gold. Second and third quarters are derived from the Bank’s cumulative interim results; the first quarter and nine months are as printed. Profit also reflects the Swiss franc positions and items not shown.

Gold ends September 1.08% above its end-2025 price

Gold contributed a valuation gain of CHF 1.2 billion over the nine months, against CHF 22.9 billion a year earlier, on an unchanged volume. The price stood at CHF 112,118 per kilogram at the end of September.

That is 1.08% above the end-2025 price, against a 28.96% rise over the same nine months of 2025. The route between was steep.

Gold rose 6.74% in the first quarter, to CHF 118,400. It then fell 11.48% in the second quarter and recovered 6.97% in the third.

The Bank reported 1,040 tonnes of gold at the end of 2025, and the volume has not changed since. At that tonnage, the third-quarter rise of CHF 7,306 per kilogram is worth CHF 7.6 billion by The Edge’s calculation, in line with the quarter’s gain derived from the two interim releases.

Gold price at period end (in CHF per kilogram)

End-of-period prices as printed in the Bank’s annual and interim results.

A new agreement sets the maximum payout at CHF 6 billion

The interim figures come before the allocation to the provisions for currency reserves, which the National Bank Act requires and which is set at the end of the year. On 1 October the Federal Department of Finance and the Bank signed a profit distribution agreement for the financial years 2026 to 2030. It replaces the 2021 agreement.

Provided the Bank’s financial situation permits, up to CHF 6 billion a year goes to the Confederation and the cantons. A base amount of CHF 2 billion is paid on a net profit of at least CHF 2 billion. Four supplements of CHF 1 billion each are added at higher thresholds.

Distribution under the 2026 to 2030 agreement (in CHF billions)

Payout to the Confederation and the cantons combined, provided the Bank’s financial situation permits; the agreement’s modalities are unchanged from the 2021 agreement.

For 2025, under the old agreement, the payout was CHF 4 billion, alongside a dividend of CHF 15 per share, the legal maximum. One third went to the Confederation and two thirds to the cantons.

The Bank is also lowering the minimum allocation to the provisions from 10% to 8% from the 2026 financial year, subject to annual approval by the Bank Council. The 2025 allocation of CHF 12.7 billion took the provisions to CHF 140.1 billion. After the 2025 payments, the distribution reserve stood at CHF 22.3 billion.

In The Edge’s reading, an illustrative calculation on the nine-month result would clear the highest distribution threshold, but the final payout depends on the full-year result, the allocation to the provisions for currency reserves and the Bank’s financial situation. Assume the year ends at the nine-month profit and the 8% minimum is approved and applies to the CHF 140.1 billion of provisions. The allocation would then be CHF 11.2 billion.

Adding the CHF 22.3 billion distribution reserve, as the Bank did for 2025, would give a net profit of CHF 55.3 billion. That is above the CHF 40 billion top threshold. The first quarter’s loss of CHF 0.5 billion is a reminder of how fast the result can turn.

What to watch: The monetary policy assessment on 10 December at 08:30 GMT. Preliminary data on the 2026 annual result on 8 January 2027 at 06:15 GMT, and the annual result for 2026 on 1 March 2027 at 06:15 GMT.

Figures are from the Swiss National Bank’s interim results as at 30 September 2026, 30 June 2026 and 31 March 2026 and as at 30 September 2025 and 30 June 2025, its annual result for 2025, its 1 October 2026 announcement of the profit distribution agreement and its 24 September 2026 monetary policy assessment; quarterly figures, percentage changes, multiples and shares not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations. The dollar equivalent uses the Bank’s USD/CHF rate of 0.8212 on 30 October 2026.

Sources: Swiss National Bank, The Edge.

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