Swiss prosecutors have ended a criminal probe into the breaking of professional confidentiality by Philipp Hildebrand, the former president of the Swiss National Bank who resigned in 2012.

Swiss prosecutors have ended a criminal probe into the breaking of professional confidentiality by Philipp Hildebrand, the former president of the Swiss National Bank who resigned in 2012, media reports said.

That case had been brought by Christoph Blocher, of the rightwing Swiss People’s Party, who had said Hildebrand had told the media of Blocher’s role in the affair.

Hildebrand resigned in January 2012 after emails cast doubt on his claims not to have known about foreign exchange trades made by his wife in August, weeks before the central bank moved to cap the Swiss franc against the euro at a rate of 1.20 – that forex policy remains in place.

Among other institutions involved in the saga was Bank Sarasin, as it was then called. In January 2012, Bank Sarasin lodged a formal complaint against the Swiss weekly magazine which broke the story concerning one of its former employees stealing bank data about Hildebrand. Die Weltwoche was accused by the Swiss private bank of “erroneous reporting”. Sarasin lodged a formal complaint with the Swiss Press Council against the privately-owned Swiss publication.

Swiss franc cap
Hildebrand was accused of insider trading after details of the currency transactions were leaked. He denied the charge, maintaining his wife ordered the transactions without his prior knowledge.
Blocher, who has been a critic of how Hildebrand acted while head of the SNB, was allegedly given information about the trade, but he has denied handling any original banking documents in the matter and said that he merely relayed information to the then cabinet minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.

This “relaying” was reported by the NZZ am Sonntag and SonntagsZeitung at the beginning of 2012, prompting Blocher’s lawsuit.

At the weekend, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office confirmed a report in the NZZ am Sonntag, saying it was no longer possible to ascertain who had given information about Blocher’s role to the media.
Meanwhile, Swiss electors have been voting in a referendum, put by the country’s centre-right, as to whether the SNB should keep a minimum amount of reserves in gold, a proposal seen as a way of halting, or at least curbing, the printing of money involved in the SNB’s policy of trying to hold down the Swiss franc exchange rate.