The Swiss franc dropped against the euro amid speculation bank officials sold the currency to curb its advance. The franc slid as much as 1.7 percent after trading earlier near the strongest level versus the euro in almost a week. Neither the Swiss National Bank nor the Bank for International Settlements would comment today on the reasons for the currency’s turnaround. “It appears they have stepped up the aggressiveness of their intervention,” Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy in New York at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., wrote in a note to clients today. “Although actual confirmation remains elusive, it appears that the SNB or a multilateral institution are” intervening. The franc weakened to 1.5272 per euro as of 1:33 p.m. in Zurich, and traded as low as 1.5282. It traded at 1.5012 earlier, the highest level since June 18, when SNB President Jean-Pierre Roth said that policy makers will act to curb any “irrational appreciation” of the franc Against the dollar, the franc was little changed at 1.0813, after falling to as low as 1.0851. “I heard that the BIS had made an interception in the market,” said Martin Furrer, a currency trader in Lucerne at Luzerner Kantonalbank. SNB spokesman Nicolas Haymoz in Zurich declined to comment on whether the banks took action in foreign-exchange markets today. Basel-based BIS spokeswoman Lisa Weekes also refused to comment. The franc fell 2.1 percent against the euro since March 11, the day before the SNB officially began intervening. It rose 7.6 percent in the six months before the bank’s action.

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