The Swiss National Bank Monday announced an agreement with several European central banks to end a foreign exchange programme to swap Swiss francs for euros as part of moves to unwind anti-financial crisis emergency measures. The Swiss National Bank, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Narodowy Bank Polski in Poland and the Magyar Nemzeti Bank in Hungary said they will discontinue the swaps as the "demand for liquidity provided by this type of operation has declined."

In a statement, the ECB said it would end conducting one-week Swiss franc swap operations this month, as a result drawing to a close an emergency measure launched to contain the global financial crisis. Announcing the end of the foreign exchange program, the Swiss bank said that "conditions in the Swiss franc funding market have improved." The last swap operation will take place on January 25, after which francs will be available through the repo system and the interbank market.

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2010