The head of Switzerland’s central bank, who stepped down from his post amid questions about his wife’s foreign exchange trading, is also leaving the Financial Stability Board.
Philipp Hildebrand resigned Monday as chairman of the board of the Swiss National Bank, and, as a result, he’s also leaving his role as vice-chairman of the FSB. Hildebrand announced his intention to step down today, after concluding that he couldn’t prove his wife’s trades were made without his knowledge.
“I have come to the conclusion that it is not possible to provide conclusive and final evidence that my wife did indeed initiate the foreign exchange transaction… without my knowledge. The fact is: my word is my bond. I had no knowledge of my wife’s transaction on that day,” he stressed.
Nevertheless, he concluded that, as a result of the questions surrounding the trading, he might not “be in a position to make the kinds of tough decisions and to implement them with the same rigour and success as in the past”; and, as a result, he decided to step down from the bank, effectively giving up his position among global policymakers, too.
“Philipp has been instrumental in helping to manage the response to the global financial crisis and in developing major reforms to strengthen the resiliency and stability of the international financial system. I very much regret the circumstances of his departure and the loss of his future contributions to the work of the Financial Stability Board,” said Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of Canada, who recently also took over as chairman of the FSB. The FSB has yet to name a replacement.
Separately, at their meeting in Basel this weekend, the central bank Governors of the Global Economy Meeting appointed William Dudley, who is president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as chairman of the Committee on the Global Financial System, which is the central bankers’ forum for monitoring and examining issues relating to financial markets and systems. In this new role, Dudley succeeds Carney, who served as chairman as the CGFS since July 2010, until his appointment at the FSB.
And, the Bank for International Settlements also announced that the governor of the Bank of Mexico, Agustín Carstens, has been appointed as chair of the BIS Consultative Council for the Americas, which was established in 2008 to facilitate communication between the central banks in the Americas and the BIS board and management. His appointment is for a two year term.