Swiss National Bank Governing Board member Petra Tschudin warned on September 30, 2026, in Zurich that large stablecoins could weaken the SNB's control over borrowing costs and called for regulatory measures to protect the central bank's monetary policy mandate.

Her argument centers on what economists call monetary policy transmission. When the SNB moves its policy rate, the change is supposed to ripple outward through the financial system: commercial banks adjust lending and deposit rates, and households and businesses eventually feel the effect. That chain depends on the two-tier structure of finance, in which the central bank sits at the top and transacts with commercial banks, while those banks serve everyone else.

Stablecoins sit outside this architecture. Tschudin argued that if deposits drift from commercial banks into stablecoin issuers, the channels the SNB uses to steer borrowing costs become leakier. The endgame, in her framing, is an erosion of the central bank's influence over credit conditions in the real economy.

She did not dismiss the technology. Tschudin acknowledged that stablecoins can modernize payments, including by lowering costs for cross-border transfers. Her position was about guardrails rather than prohibition. Regulatory measures, she said, are crucial to ensure the central bank can continue to fulfill its mandate.

A warning with a paper trail

The speech was not an isolated intervention. The SNB flagged stablecoin risks in its July 2026 financial stability report, which identified two principal dangers. The first is disintermediation — money bypassing the banking system entirely. The second is run risk: a stablecoin backed by inadequate reserves could face a wave of redemptions it cannot meet.

The same report offered reassurance on the domestic front. The market for Swiss franc stablecoins remained small as of mid-2026, with a total market capitalization under $50 million. At that scale, the SNB judged domestic risks manageable for now.

The gap between the two assessments defines the policy problem. Swiss franc exposure is trivial today, but globally scaled stablecoins — predominantly dollar-denominated — could pull Swiss deposits into instruments the SNB neither issues nor supervises. Tschudin's remarks signal that the central bank wants regulatory scaffolding in place before that scenario matures, not after.

Switzerland's parallel tracks

The country is already building that scaffolding on two fronts. The first is licensing. Switzerland is creating a new category called a "payment instrument institution" for issuers of fiat-backed stablecoins, under amendments to the Financial Institutions Act. The category would give issuers a dedicated regulatory home rather than forcing them into frameworks designed for banks or fund managers.

The second front is the SNB's own infrastructure. Through Project Helvetia III, the central bank is testing a wholesale central bank digital currency, or wCBDC — a tokenized form of central bank money intended for settlement between financial institutions rather than retail use. The project has been extended until at least 2028.

Together, the two tracks sketch Switzerland's emerging position: private stablecoins under a dedicated license, and tokenized central bank money confined to the wholesale tier. Tschudin's speech suggests the SNB sees the boundary between those tiers as the thing worth defending.

What follows

For stablecoin issuers targeting Swiss users, the payment instrument institution license will define capital, reserve and redemption requirements under the amended Financial Institutions Act. For banks, the policy question is whether deposit migration, currently negligible in franc terms, accelerates as global stablecoins add yield-bearing or cross-border features.

The SNB has now put the issue on the record twice in three months. With Helvetia III running through at least 2028 and stablecoin legislation moving through parliament, the regulatory framework that Tschudin called for should take shape well before the wholesale CBDC experiments conclude.