Before the construction of the National Bank building: the Bürki house on parliament square, 1907 (Archives of the SNB)
GSK
One of the proposals submitted for the architectural competititon, architects Joss and Klauser (Verlags-AG der akad-techn. Vereine Zürich)
GSK
A 1930 view of the main facade of the national bank building designed by Eduard Joos (SNB)
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The counter hall (SNB)
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The counter hall after it was refurbished between 1961 and 1963 (SNB)
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The national bank building from above with the parliament building in the background (SNB/A. Gempeler)
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The main meeting room in the neighbouring Kaiser House (SNB/A. Gempeler)
GSK
An office on the second floor of the main building (SNB/A.Gempeler)
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Coin preparation at the Kaiser House (SNB/A.Gempeler)
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The national bank owns more than 1,000 tons of gold, but refuses to say where they are stored (Keystone/M. Rütschi)
Keystone
The main building and water fountains on parliament square in 2004 (imagepoint)
imagepoint
For the past century, the Swiss National Bank's headquarters have sat right next to the parliament building in the capital Bern.
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The offices opened for business in 1912 and are rumoured to hold the country’s gold reserves in their basement. But decisions are taken in Zurich, Switzerland’s main financial centre, where the three-member governing board works at the other headquarters. A recently published book about the bank’s history in Bern provides some glimpses of little-known facts.
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SNB independence put to the test
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When the SNB set a SFr1.20 exchange floor against the euro a year ago the strategy was first met with a chorus of sceptical criticism. Rightwing politicians, led by the Swiss People’s Party, said it was too risky following the losses incurred in previous SNB interventions. The political left and trade unions accused the SNB…
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On September 6, 2011, the central bank imposed a SFr1.20 exchange rate floor against the euro to halt the rapid rise of the franc, which was threatening price stability and exporters. The SNB has recently been forced to buy up vast quantities of euros to defend its policy. One year on from the SNB’s watershed…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.