Swiss Franc (CHF)

About the Swiss Franc

The Swiss Franc (CHF) is the official currency of Switzerland and, under a 1980 Currency Treaty, of the Principality of Liechtenstein. It is issued by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and written Fr. or CHF; one franc is divided into 100 centimes, known as Rappen in German-speaking Switzerland and informally as a Stutz.

The franc floats against other currencies. The SNB has no exchange-rate target: it conducts monetary policy by setting the SNB policy rate and remains willing to be active in the foreign exchange market as necessary. From 6 September 2011 to 15 January 2015 the SNB enforced a minimum exchange rate of CHF 1.20 per euro before returning the franc to a free float. At its assessment of 18 June 2026 it kept the policy rate at 0% and signalled an increased willingness to intervene against rapid and excessive appreciation of the franc.

Switzerland acquired its own national currency in 1850, shortly after the founding of the federal state, when the first federal Coinage Act replaced the coins of the cantons with the franc. In 1891 the federal constitution granted the Confederation the exclusive right to issue banknotes, a monopoly transferred to the newly created Swiss National Bank, which commenced operations in 1907. Liechtenstein, which had used the franc de facto for some 60 years, formalised the arrangement in the 1980 Currency Treaty, under which the SNB acts as its central bank.

In the BIS 2025 Triennial Central Bank Survey the Swiss franc was the sixth most traded currency in the world, appearing on one side of 6.4% of all trades in a global over-the-counter market that averaged 9.6 trillion US dollars per day in April 2025 — up from eighth place in the 2022 survey.

Cash circulates as the ninth banknote series — 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 1000 francs, issued between April 2016 and September 2019 — and as coins of 5, 10 and 20 centimes and ½, 1, 2 and 5 francs, struck by Swissmint under the federal coin monopoly. The eighth note series was recalled as of 30 April 2021, but notes from the sixth series onwards remain exchangeable at the SNB at full nominal value without time limit.