- Petra Tschudin, one of three rate-setters on the Swiss National Bank governing board, said large stablecoins that sit outside the existing two-tier financial system create conditions where central banks find it harder to fulfil their mandate, and called for regulation safeguarding policymakers influence.
- Her position was not uniformly negative. She said modernising the payment system is sensible, that stablecoins can improve the current system by letting international companies move money more cheaply, and that competition between commercial banks and stablecoins brings innovation.
- The SNB has warned that stablecoins may not be able to deliver on promised convertibility at par, while judging local financial stability risks small given low volumes and limited adoption in Switzerland.
- The bank has issued a blockchain-based wholesale digital currency for banks for three years, with the project running until at least 2028, but Tschudin said volumes traded there are not large and the significant take-off has not yet occurred. Unlike pilots in China and the euro area, the Swiss version cannot be held by consumers, and the SNB maintains that retail CBDC benefits do not outweigh the risks.
What Happened?
Tschudin, who manages the SNB large foreign exchange portfolio and its digital projects, was speaking to professional forecasters at ETH Zurich KOF economic research institute. The SNB is itself an unusual institution in being publicly traded, with shares quoted at 3,180.00.
Why It Matters?
The transmission argument is more specific than the general central bank scepticism usually reported, and it is worth understanding on its own terms. Monetary policy works through a two-tier structure in which the central bank sets rates for commercial banks, which pass them to households and businesses through deposits and lending. A large stablecoin operating outside that chain holds its reserves in government securities rather than central bank money, so a policy rate change does not propagate through it in the same way. If a material share of payments and balances migrates to such instruments, the lever central banks pull becomes connected to less of the economy. That is a mechanical concern rather than an ideological one, and it explains why the objection focuses on stablecoins not integrated into the existing system rather than on stablecoins as such. Tschudin balance is notable given the direction elsewhere in Europe. The ECB and euro area national central banks have been pushing to extend a ban on stablecoin yields to crypto lending and staking, while she describes bank versus stablecoin competition as healthy and cheaper cross-border payments as a genuine benefit. European central banks are not speaking with one voice, which matters for firms trying to plan around the regulatory direction. The admission about the SNB own wholesale digital currency is the most candid element. Three years in, with the project extended to at least 2028, the institution reports volumes that are not large and a lift-off that has not arrived. Central bank digital currency is frequently presented as the sovereign answer to private stablecoins, and here a pioneer concedes its version has yet to find meaningful use.
What Next?
Watch whether Switzerland moves toward the specific regulation Tschudin describes, which would aim to bring large stablecoins inside the two-tier system rather than prohibit them, and would be a different model from the ECB restrictive approach. The SNB wholesale CBDC runs to at least 2028, so its volumes are the measurable test of whether institutional demand for central bank digital money materialises. Stablecoin adoption in Switzerland remains low, so the SNB assessment of financial stability risk should be revisited if that changes. For firms operating across Europe, the divergence between the Swiss and euro area positions is the practical planning problem, alongside ESMA making tokenization a supervisory priority from 2027.
Affected Tickers and Coins: SNBN, CRCL, COIN
Source: Bloomberg
