Data Extraction

(i) March 25, The SNB introduced the new SNB COVID-19 refinancing facility (CRF), aimed at strengthening the supply of credit to the Swiss economy by providing the banking system with additional liquidity; (ii) July 1, Federal Council decided to support the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) to bridge an acute liquidity shortfall with additional CHF550 million in the form of a loan of up to one year at market interest rates.

(i) May 11, SNB COVID-19 refinancing facility expanded to include cantonal loan guarantees as well as joint and several loan guarantees for startups;

(i) March 18 to April 17, USD liquidity injected via auctions totaled USD25.6 billion. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) offered a new 84-day maturity and increased the frequency of the 7-day maturity operations from weekly to daily; (ii) The SNB has increased its interventions in the FX market to limit appreciation of the Swiss franc. (iii) Sight deposits held at the SNB have increased by around CHF48 billion (or 6.9 percent of 2019 GDP) since early February, a proxy for the amount of Swiss franc liquidity injected through both FX interventions and the Covid-19 refinancing facility; (iv) As of May 7, sight deposits held at the SNB have increased by around CHF75 billion since early February to limit appreciation of the Swiss franc.

No amount/estimate: (i) March 19, The SNB announced that starting April 1 the threshold factor for exempting sight deposits from negative interest rates would be raised from 25 to 30; (ii) March 27, the SNB request for deactivation of the countercyclical capital buffer was approved by the Federal Council; (iii) On the supervisory front, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) introduced a temporary exclusion of deposits held at the central bank from the calculation of banks’ leverage ratio. FINMA emphasized that the capital released from this relaxation should be used to support liquidity provision and is not to be distributed as dividends or other similar distributions related to 2019; (ii) No amount/estimate: June 29, adjusted the calculation of the special rate for COVID-19 refinancing facility (CRF) as of July 1 2020, the lower limit for the special rate will be reduced to 0% from 0.5%.

(i) March 13, CHF580 million for loan guarantees to SMEs; (ii) March 20, A guarantee program up to CHF20 billion to support bridging loans to SMEs; (iii) April 3, The Federal Council announced doubling the size of the loan guarantee program from CHF20 billion to CHF40 billion; (iv) April 22, Extended the SME loan guarantee program to include start-ups. The new procedure for startups will begin by April 30, 2020. The federal government can guarantee up to 65% of the loan, and the rest can be covered by cantons. In total, the Confederation can guarantee up to CHF 100 million, and together with the cantons, loans of up to CHF 154 million can be guaranteed. Therefore, the total amount guaranteed has gone up to 100 million; (v) April 29, the FC announced CHF1.9 billion credit guarantee support to airlines and aviation-related businesses to help it through the liquidity crisis; (vi) As of mid-June, the take-up of bridge loans under the federal guarantee program is lower than budgeted; (vii) July 1, FC granted SR Technics Switzerland AG a deficiency guarantee of 60% on a bank loan of CHF 120 million in order to bridge a liquidity shortage. The remaining 40% of the credit risk is assumed by the banks.

March 18, To address liquidity bottlenecks, the Federal Council ordered a debt enforcement standstill from March 19 to April 4.

(i) No amount/estimate: June 24, Federal government will assume the cost of testing for COVID-19 and eliminates the retention fee for patients; (ii) July 8, CHF300 million for procurement of 4.5 million doses of vaccine from Moderna; (iii) August 12, CHF288.5 million government will assume all costs of COVID-19 testing.

(i) March 13, up to CHF8 billion for partial unemployment compensation; (ii) March 13, CHF1 billion for financial aid to particularly affected firms; (iii) March 13, CHF0.42 billion compensation for cancelled events; (iv) March 20, CHF12 billion for (a) temporary, interest-free deferral of social-security contribution payments; (b) extended payment periods for taxes and payables to federal suppliers; (c) extension of short-time work allowance; and (d) compensation for loss of earnings; (v) March 25, The Federal Council announced a set of additional measures to support the economy, which are estimated to cost around CHF600 million per month in unemployment insurance; vi) April 16, Extension of the right to corona-replacement earnings to the self-employed (CHF1.3 billion over a two-month period). Parents with special-needs children may receive benefits until the child reaches 20 years of age (CHF33 million over a six-month period); (vii) April 22, the FC extended the loss compensation for the self-employed to May 16 even if they had reopened their business on an earlier date; (viii) May 8, Support worth CHF65 million for childcare institutions that have lost earnings due to the coronavirus pandemic; (ix) May 20, CHF75 million financial support to the private institutions of family-supplementary childcare for childcare contributions from parents; (x) May 20, CHF20 million support for the wine industry; (xi) May 20, CHF14.2 billion additional unemployment insurance funding; (xii) June 4, CHF14.9 billion agreed by parliament, most will go towards unemployment insurance which finances short-time work compensation; (xiii) No amount/estimate: As of mid-June, assistance to self-employed has been lower than budgeted; (xiv) No amount/estimate: July 1, extended the maximum period for receiving short-time work compensation from twelve months to eighteen months; companies can continue to receive government support for short-time work compensation (KAE) effective September 1, 2020 until December 31, 2021; (xv) No amount/estimate: August 12, amended and extended the COVID-19 regulation on unemployment insurance; (xvi) August 12, CHF221.3 increase in the railway infrastructure fund; (xvii) August 12, CHF150 million financial stabilization of Skyguide (air navigation service provider). .

The SNB activated the unlimited U.S. dollar liquidity swap line with the Federal Reserve. Amount outstanding as of as of June 11: USD10.83 billion. Peak outstanding amount of USD11.4 billion in April 20.

(i) As of June 12, USD8.2million committed to the United Nations (UN) COVID-19 Response and Recovery Multi-Partner Trust Fund (COVID-19 MPTF); (ii) June 19, CHF8.5 billion Federal Council decide to make contributions to IMF which are for (a) securing the regular funds of the IMF, (b) supporting lower-income countries to deal with the COVID-19 Pandemic, and (c) relieving Somalian debt; (iii) June 19, Federal Council guaranteed the Swiss National Bank's recent credit line to the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) up to CHF 800 million; (iv) CHF1.5 million start-up funding to support the production of low-cost ventilators for developing economies through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

(i) On April 3rd the Federal Council announced the coordination of the supply of important medical products; (ii) The Federal Council mentioned the possibility of restricting exports of important medical products and the possibility to impose the production of some of these medical goods; (iii) May 20, the Federal Council dealt with the gradual phase-out of some COVID measures.

(i) Gatherings in public spaces of more than five people are prohibited; (ii) The Federal Council has banned public and private events; (iii) Classroom teaching is banned at schools, universities and other training and educational institutions. The ban will apply until 19 April 2020; (iv) People from high-risk countries and areas will be refused entry into Switzerland; (v) On March 16, the government declared a ban on all private and public events and closing bars, restaurants, sports and cultural spaces; (vi) While protective and relief measures continue to be rolled out or amended, the authorities also announced a plan to gradually reopen the economy starting from the week of April 27; (vii) June 15, Covid-19 related entry restrictions were lifted for all EU/EFTA states and the United Kingdom.

March 25, The SNB introduced the new SNB COVID-19 refinancing facility (CRF), aimed at strengthening the supply of credit to the Swiss economy by providing the banking system with additional liquidity.

(i) March 18 to April 17, USD liquidity injected via auctions totaled USD25.6 billion. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) offered a new 84-day maturity and increased the frequency of the 7-day maturity operations from weekly to daily; (ii) The SNB has increased its interventions in the FX market to limit appreciation of the Swiss franc. Sight deposits held at the SNB have increased by around CHF48 billion (or 6.9 percent of 2019 GDP) since early February, a proxy for the amount of Swiss franc liquidity injected through both FX interventions and the Covid-19 refinancing facility [update].

No amount/estimate: (i) March 19, The SNB announced that starting April 1 the threshold factor for exempting sight deposits from negative interest rates would be raised from 25 to 30; (ii) March 27, the SNB request for deactivation of the countercyclical capital buffer was approved by the Federal Council; (iii) On the supervisory front, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) introduced a temporary exclusion of deposits held at the central bank from the calculation of banks’ leverage ratio. FINMA emphasized that the capital released from this relaxation should be used to support liquidity provision and is not to be distributed as dividends or other similar distributions related to 2019.

(i) March 13, CHF580 million for loan guarantees to SMEs; (ii) March 20, A guarantee program up to CHF20 billion to support bridging loans to SMEs; (iii) April 3, The Federal Council announced doubling the size of the loan guarantee program from CHF20 billion to CHF40 billion; (iv) April 22, Extended the SME loan guarantee program to include start-ups. The new procedure for startups will begin by April 30, 2020. The federal government can guarantee up to 65% of the loan, and the rest can be covered by cantons. In total, the Confederation can guarantee up to CHF 100 million, and together with the cantons, loans of up to CHF 154 million can be guaranteed. Therefore, the total amount guaranteed has gone up to 100 million. (v) April 29, the FC announced CHF1.9 billion credit guarantee support to airlines and aviation-related businesses to help it through the liquidity crisis. [update].

March 18, To address liquidity bottlenecks, the Federal Council ordered a debt enforcement standstill from March 19 to April 4.