Swiss Bank Chief Vows Not to Resign Over Currency Trades

“I am not aware of any legal transgressions,” Mr. Hildebrand said at a news conference in Zurich. “But I understand that the public also poses the moral question.”

The 48-year-old head of the Swiss National Bank, who played a high-profile role in formulation of new global standards designed to limit risky behavior by bankers, was by turns contrite and angry during the one-hour appearance, which was broadcast on the Internet.

While expressing regrets, Mr. Hildebrand portrayed the accusation of insider trading as the work of his enemies on the Swiss political right, and said he was considering taking legal action against those who used information stolen from a personal account at Bank Sarasin, a Swiss private bank.

“The personal attacks against me have reached the point where I had to defend myself,” Mr. Hildebrand said.

An information technology worker at Bank Sarasin faces a criminal investigation for allegedly giving the information to the Swiss People’s Party, whose most visible leader, Christoph Blocher, has been a bitter critic of Mr. Hildebrand.

Appearing on a Swiss television program Thursday, Mr. Blocher confirmed that he had passed on information about the transactions and called Mr. Hildebrand “no longer tolerable.”

But Mr. Hildebrand also faces a storm of criticism across the political spectrum, with members of Parliament and commentators questioning whether he has damaged the credibility of the Swiss National Bank and Switzerland’s image abroad. Mr. Hildebrand is vice president of the Financial Stability Board, a group of central bankers and regulators that plays a leading role in recommending bank regulations to the leaders of the Group of 20 nations.

Mr. Hildebrand vowed to “continue to apply all of my energy to my job as president” of the Swiss central bank.

During the news conference, Mr. Hildebrand denied a key assertion by Weltwoche, a right-leaning Swiss magazine that first reported many details of the accusations. The publication said it had evidence that Mr. Hildebrand, and not his wife, had personally made a large investment in dollars just days before the Swiss National Bank stepped up its intervention in currency markets. The central bank was then engaged in an intense effort to stem the rise of the franc and protect Swiss exporters.

Mr. Hildebrand said that his wife, Kashya Hildebrand, had legal power to use the account and bought dollars because she considered them very cheap. He described her as an economist and “strong personality” who takes a keen interest in finance.

When he learned of the transaction the next morning, Mr. Hildebrand said, he immediately called his adviser at Bank Sarasin and told him not to make any more trades without his approval, and reported the transaction to S.N.B. compliance officials.

Mr. Hildebrand said he now regretted that he did not undo the transaction. Auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers, hired by the council that oversees the Swiss National Bank, agreed with Mr. Hildebrand’s version of events.

But Mr. Hildebrand also said the case showed the need for more disclosure by top officials in the central bank. In the future, he said, he and other members of the S.N.B. directorate should make public all transactions worth more than 20,000 Swiss francs, or $21,000, and get clearance from the bank’s compliance department.

Mr. Hildebrand said he had donated 75,000 francs to an organization that promotes preservation of Swiss mountain regions. That is the sum that Weltwoche, the magazine, said that Mr. Hildebrand earned on the trades.

But it is unclear how much profit Mr. Hildebrand actually made from the trades.

In August, Mrs. Hildebrand spent 400,000 francs to buy $504,000, the auditors said, two days before the S.N.B. stepped up its intervention in currency markets.

In October, Mr. Hildebrand sold about the same amount of dollars at a more favorable exchange rate, earning about 64,000 francs.

But in March, after the sale of a vacation home, Mr. Hildebrand had purchased nearly $1.2 million when the exchange rate was much less favorable. So at least on paper that investment was a money loser.

Any profit would not be a large sum for the Hildebrands, whose personal wealth was evident Thursday in the size of their real estate assets. One reason that Mr. Hildebrand bought dollars in March, he said, was that the family’s Alpine vacation home had just sold for 3.3 million francs and he wanted to diversify his currency holdings.

The accusations put huge political pressure on Mr. Hildebrand, but it appears unlikely that he will face criminal charges. Switzerland’s insider trading law does not apply to currency transactions, said Andreas Brunner, head of a prosecutor’s unit in Zurich that focuses on economic crimes.

Mr. Brunner’s office said Thursday that it would pursue a criminal investigation of a 39-year-old former employee of Bank Sarasin for possible violations of the country’s bank secrecy law. The man, who was not identified, is suspected of leaking records of Mr. Hildebrand’s currency transactions.

The employee was able to call up Mr. Hildebrand’s records on a bank computer but not print them out. Mr. Hildebrand asserted that the employee used a mobile phone or digital camera to photograph the computer screen.

Bank Sarasin said Tuesday that it had fired the employee, who had turned himself in to the police in Zurich. The charges carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

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