Swiss National Bank defends investment approach after calls to ditch Palantir stake

By John Revill

Bern, April 24 (Reuters) - Swiss National Bank Chairman Martin Schlegel defended the central bank's investment approach on Friday, after campaigners from Minneapolis called on the central bank to offload its $1.1 billion investment in Palantir Technologies (PLTR).

Schlegel said he could not comment on individual stocks but said the SNB's massive foreign currency portfolio was designed to serve its monetary policy.

The bank's investments must be available at all times and preserve their value over the long term, Schlegel said, while with equities the SNB followed a market-neutral approach.

"We weight companies according to their market weight or market capitalization, in order to cover the market as broadly as possible and also to diversify risks," Schlegel said.

Still, the SNB did exclude companies that systematically cause severe environmental damage, violate fundamental human rights or produce banned weapons, he added.

"Naturally, we work with external specialists who carry out the screening for us and also make the corresponding assessments," Schlegel said.

"I believe this process is very robust," he said, adding the situation with companies was not always clear in one direction or the other.

"There are shades of grey, and there are even other colours as well," Schlegel said. (Reporting by John Revill, Editing by Miranda Murray)