Questions about the SNB

Hi All, I just recently got very confused while reading about the SNB, maybe there are some pros around who can help me:

  1. Why the hell is it a listed company? (SNBN on EBS)
  2. Why is a German professor a big Shareholder of it? What could he win from it? The shareholders-right are quite limited. (https://www.handelszeitung.ch/unternehmen/der-diskrete-snb-grossaktionar-aus-deutschland)
  3. The Dividend for its Shareholders is capped at 6% (everything above goes to canton and bund)
    3.1 WTF is there a dividend at all? Do other Central-banks pay out dividends?
    3.2 Why is it capped?
    3.3 Their gains vary, but from what I see its always 1.5 MCHF = 1.5 CHF per Share? (Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) - Erfolgsrechnung und Gewinnverwendung 2020)
  4. Why did the shareprice increase so dramatically from 2015 on?
  5. Is it the only listed “company” with an own money-printing-machine?
  6. Can it be considered as a special asset class between stocks and bonds? (Since I can’t Imagine a scenario where the SNB goes bust
 unless the whole country collapses)
  7. Why are they keeping so high reserves? (do they estimate that their portfolio will face a correction? (Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) - Erfolgsrechnung und Gewinnverwendung 2020)

Looking forward to your answers!

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What should they do with the money from their reserves? They can‘t just do as they please I assume

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If you manage to read in German, cash.ch Insider was writing about it from time to time, for example

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My view on it there are two things:

Some people decided that by buying SNB stock they have rights on SNB portfolio, which is of course nonsense.

SNB is a meme stock and was a meme stock long before this concept was formulated.

Others might not be listed, but many central banks are regular companies/entities.
Why is the National Bank listed on the Stock Exchange? | nbb.be as another example

For many of the older ones, they started as a regular company that was given the right extend credit and give out bank notes at a country level, example UK: Bank of England - Wikipedia

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The SNB and to some extent cantonal banks are (probably rightly) considered to be very safe investments because they benefit from virtually unlimited government guarantees. That guarantee that taxes or debt will be generated to bail them out makes them a closer relative of bonds than free market stocks. For what more or less amounts to Swiss government bonds, the returns are often pretty attractive.

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