The Swiss National Bank (SNB) said on Wednesday that it would report a loss of some 15 billion Swiss francs (15.3 billion U.S. dollars) for the 2018 financial year due to losses from its foreign currency holdings.

The loss would reverse the record 54.4 billion Swiss franc profit the SNB made during 2017.

Switzerland's central bank said in a statement that its losses on foreign currency positions in 2018 totaled 16 billion Swiss francs as the bank bought foreign currencies to try to stem the effects of a strong franc.

The central bank said it will release a detailed report on the annual result with final figures on March 4. Its Annual Report will be published on March 21. (1 U.S. dollar=0.98 Swiss Franc)