A few weeks ago, a small group of Swiss bankers and diplomats gathered in the ground floor restaurant of a high-rise office tower in Singapore’s central business district.
They had come to mark an unusual event: the opening of Swiss National Bank’s first overseas branch. The central bank needed to better manage its SF50bn ($53bn) in foreign exchange holdings in Asian currencies – in the Asian timezone – and had picked Singapore over other financial centres in the region.
Singapore was particularly pleased to be chosen, said Ravi Menon, head of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) – the central bank. The two countries were “kindred spirits”.