Marlene Amstad

Dr. Marlene Amstad is Head of Financial Market Analysis at the Swiss National Bank (SNB). Her group analyses current financial market issues and advises the governing board members regarding monetary policy. She is one of three members of the SNB’s investment committee (50 bill. CHF AuM) and lecturer at the University of Bern. She worked as a visting senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2004-2005), as a senior economist of the SNB’s research department (2002-2004), and as a Quantitative Credit Risk Manager with Credit Suisse (2000-2002, responsible for the econometric development of an early warning system for credit risks as required by Basel II). A native Swiss, Marlene Amstad received a masters degree in economics from the University of Bern, and a doctorate in econometrics from the University of St. Gallen. Her dissertation led to a leading indicator for turning points in the business cycle based on markov switching models. The PhD thesis was compiled during her work (1993-1999) at the Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF/ETHZ) where she was responsible for the most prominent indicator for the Swiss business cycle ("KOF Barometer").