Thomas Jordan

Thomas Jordan served as Chairman of the Swiss National Bank from 2012 to 2024. The most significant event of his tenure was the January 2015 decision to abandon the SNB's cap on the CHF/EUR exchange rate — a peg of 1.20 CHF per euro that had been in place since 2011. The abrupt removal caused the franc to appreciate 30% in minutes, devastating Swiss exporters, wiping out several FX brokers worldwide, and creating massive losses for currency traders. Jordan also oversaw the SNB's accumulation of a massive foreign exchange reserve portfolio, making the SNB one of the world's largest holders of foreign equities. The SNB's equity portfolio grew to exceed half a trillion Swiss francs, becoming a significant holder in companies like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Jordan defended this unconventional asset accumulation as a necessary consequence of maintaining the exchange rate floor and managing capital flows into the safe-haven franc. He retired in September 2024 and was succeeded by Martin Schlegel. His tenure fundamentally redefined expectations about what a small open economy's central bank might hold on its balance sheet.