Called to account

摘要

It is starting to look like a sustained attack. On January 4th an article in Die Weltwoche, a Swiss weekly magazine, accused Philipp Hildebrand, president of the Swiss National Bank (snb), of personal currency speculation while the snb was intervening to stabilise the Swiss franc/us dollar rate. That reignited a controversy that seemed to have died down after the snb's own pre-Christmas investigations-conducted by pwc, an accountancy firm-exonerated Mr Hildebrand of any infringement of the bank's rules on personal-account dealing. That report was hurriedly published by the snb on January 4th, along with the central bank's code of ethics. The controversy began in December when the Swiss Federal Council reportedly confronted Mr Hildebrand with allegations of suspicious trading, which had been brought to them by Christoph Blocher, a right-wing politician. Mr Hildebrand immediately told the snb board, and an investigation started.