By John Revill and Noele Illien
ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan on Friday defended the central bank's role in managing the demise of Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) in 2023, as he announced he was stepping down as SNB chief.
Jordan said the collapse of the lender had no influence on his decision to leave his role as head of the central bank three years before his current mandate concludes.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference to explain his departure, Jordan, 61, faced several questions on whether the pressure and criticism he faced dealing with the crisis around Switzerland's second biggest lender helped to hasten his exit.
"My decision was not influenced in any way by the Credit Suisse case," he said, noting that after 12 years in charge of the SNB and with prices stable, it was a good time to step down.
Last year, Jordan assumed a key role in the SNB's provision of emergency liquidity to facilitate Credit Suisse's rescue takeover by its bigger rival UBS.
Nevertheless critics argued the central bank was too slow and too cautious to react to the crisis, despite being concerned about Credit Suisse since as early as February 2020.
Jordan said the SNB and Swiss financial authorities had always worked very effectively together, and that this was borne out by the solution reached on the Credit Suisse saga.
"The cooperation between the authorities led to a package of measures, and this package of measures prevented a financial crisis," Jordan told reporters.
Still, some critics have argued the SNB could have allowed Credit Suisse to ride out the storm if it had delivered robust enough assurances at an earlier stage in the bank's woes.
Jordan countered this by saying the bank had had to deal with requests that overstepped its legal mandate.
"I don't want to go into this too much here, but with Credit Suisse, this demand that the SNB should respond with a "whatever it takes" - the National Bank doesn't have this role," he said.
"It doesn't have this legal authority, it doesn't have this responsibility."