The Swiss National Bank surprised markets on Thursday by introducing a negative interest rate on sight deposit account balances, seeking to discourage safe-haven buying by investors anxious over the crisis in Russia and oil's slide.

In a brief statement, the SNB said it would impose an interest rate of -0.25 percent on sight deposit account balances of over 10 million Swiss francs and expand its three-month Libor target range to -0.75 percent to 0.25 percent.

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