Costa Vayenas has more than three decades of experience in the investment management industry. He lives in Switzerland, where he is the Chief Investment Officer at Genesis Investment Partners, a multi-family office and asset manager. He spent twenty-five years as an analyst for UBS in London, New York and Zurich. For more than a decade, he has been an external lecturer at the University of Zurich (Department of Finance). He has also been a guest lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). He is active in several start-ups in the technology sector, having launched a think tank for a company in the digital identity space (Procivis, subsequently acquired by Orell Füssli). He has published a book about democracy in the digital age, another about a language algorithm, which reached number one in its category on Amazon for several years, and he was co-editor of a book on the emerging markets (published by Bloomsbury). Over the years, he has written numerous reports and articles. One of his reports was cited in The Financial Times as having triggered a currency crisis. Another featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal under “What’s News”.
The Swiss franc has a cult following. This book provides fans with a treasure trove of additional, deep data and insights. This includes numerous original charts recreating the value of the Swiss franc to its origins in 1798, against the US dollar and sterling, and as far back as the data permits for the currencies of Switzerland’s euro neighbours, as well as relative to the Japanese yen and the Chinese renminbi. The book also explains how Switzerland manages with an ever-appreciating exchange rate. Looking ahead, the book discusses what long-term bond yield differentials might imply for the Swiss franc against the US dollar, and the importance of jurisdictions for asset values in a world where states and private individuals are shifting to new forms of digital money.
The Swiss Franc, from 1798 to 2055
ISBN 978-3-033-11396-1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of figures
Preface and acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Swiss franc and Napoleon
Chapter 2 The Swiss franc and the neighbours
Chapter 3 The Swiss franc and sterling
Chapter 4 The Swiss franc and the US dollar
Chapter 5 The Swiss franc and Asia
Chapter 6 The Swiss franc and competitiveness
Chapter 7 The Swiss franc and quantum money
Notes
Index
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: The Roman Empire’s role in Swiss border defence, 58 BC to AD 375
Figure 2: Population of the Old Swiss Confederacy and its neighbours in 1500
Figure 3: Cantons of the Swiss Confederacy since 1291
Figure 4: St. Gallen guilders per French écus d’or au soleil, 1637 to 1677
Figure 5: The price index, France and Switzerland, 1791 to 1796
Figure 6: Swiss currency per French franc, and the inflation differential, 1798 to 1949
Figure 7: GDP per capita of Switzerland and its neighbours, 1851 to 1949
Figure 8: Comparing government debt in Europe and the US, 1899 to 1913
Figure 9: Swiss federal defence spending as a percentage of total federal government spending, 1856 to 1912
Figure 10: Mass refugees entering Switzerland, 1680 to 1945
Figure 11: Extraordinary (war-related) Swiss federal government expenditure, 1913 to 1950
Figure 12: Swiss federal budget balance, 1910 to 1950
Figure 13: Swiss federal government debt, 1900 to 1950
Figure 14: Distribution of the SNB’s gold reserves within Switzerland during the Second World War
Figure 15: Share of the Swiss National Bank’s WWII gold reserves stored in different countries, 1939 to 1945
Figure 16: Swiss francs for one US dollar, monthly, January 1939 to December 1945
Figure 17: Recipients of gold shipped abroad by the Reichsbank, 1 September 1939 to 30 June 1945
Figure 18: The Swiss National Bank’s net gold purchases from the Reichsbank, 1 January 1939 to 30 June 1945
Figure 19: Purchases and sales of gold by the Swiss National Bank, from 1 September 1939 to 30 June 1945
Figure 20: The percentage shares of exports of Swiss arms, ammunition and fuses, 1940 to 1944
Figure 21: The gold reserves of the SNB, 1907 to 1956
Figure 22: Gold as a share of the SNB’s total foreign exchange reserves, 1913 to 1956
Figure 23: Interest rates vs. the neighbours, 1900 to 1957
Figure 24: World War I and II peak government debt levels, selected countries
Figure 25: Swiss francs per DEM and EUR, 1950 to 2025
Figure 26: Deposits in banks in Switzerland by residents in the euro area, 2005 to end-2024
Figure 27: Swiss francs per pound sterling, 1798 to 2024
Figure 28: Swiss francs for one pound sterling, December 1930 to December 1936, monthly averages
Figure 29: The world’s top five economies in terms of GDP per capita in 1908 and 1931
Figure 30: GDP per capita of Switzerland, the US and the UK, 1851 to 2024
Figure 31: Broad money supply in Switzerland, the UK and the US after the collapse of the gold standard, 1971 to 1999
Figure 32: The value of Swiss central bank gold reserves at the end of the 20th century according to various measures
Figure 33: The ratio of Swiss franc banknotes to GDP, per cent
Figure 34: Swiss francs per US dollar, 1798 to 2025
Figure 35: Swiss francs per US dollar during the US Civil War
Figure 36: Consumer price index, Switzerland and the US, 1955 to 2025
Figure 37: Swiss and US budget balances, 2001 to 2024
Figure 38: General government gross debt, Switzerland and the US, 2001 to 2025
Figure 39: Swiss and US short-term interest rates, 1837-2025
Figure 40: Differential between US and Swiss short-term interest rates, 1837 to 2025
Figure 41: Long-term government bond yields, Switzerland and the US, 1900 to 2025
Figure 42: Differential between Swiss and US government bond yields, 1900 to 2025
Figure 43: Current account balances, Switzerland and the US
Figure 44: Switzerland’s net international investment position, 1985 to 2024
Figure 45: Japanese yen for one Swiss franc, 1897 to 2024
Figure 46: Japanese deposits in banks in Switzerland, 1996 to 2024
Figure 47: Swiss francs per Chinese renminbi, 1950 to 2025
Figure 48: Turnover of foreign exchange, Swiss francs and Chinese renminbi, 1989 to 2022
Figure 49: Deposits in banks in Switzerland by residents of China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Singapore, 1996 to 2024
Figure 50: Swiss trade in goods and services, 2024
Figure 51: The real effective exchange rate
Figure 52: Comparing the inflationary impact of Covid-era fiscal and monetary policies in the euro area, Switzerland and the US, 2019 to 2025
Figure 53: The lower bound of interest rates across five thousand years
Figure 54: The number of banks in Switzerland and total balance sheet size, 1851 to 2024
Figure 55: The number of banks registering and de-registering in the Swiss Confederacy from 1798 to 1950
Figure 56: Customer deposits and custody accounts in Swiss banks, 1998 to 2025
Figure 57: Cash deposits by US residents in banks in Switzerland, 1996 to 2024
Figure 58: Deposits by residents of Greece in banks in Switzerland, 1996 to 2024
Figure 59: Cash deposit changes in banks in Switzerland by residents of selected countries during the Arab Spring
Figure 60: Size of the Swiss National Bank’s balance sheet, 1996 to Q1 2025
Figure 61: US and Swiss government bond yield curves, 2025 to 2055
Figure 62: US dollar/Swiss franc extrapolations based on past depreciations and assumed inflation differentials