The Swiss National Bank (SNB) said Monday that according to provisional calculations, it expected 2016 profits to be over 24 billion Swiss francs (23.6 billion U.S. dollars).

This is a complete U-turn compared with results recorded two years ago, when the financial institution reported losses in excess of 23 billion Swiss francs.

According to SNB, most of the year's profits were accounted for by foreign currency holdings such as euros and U.S. dollars which have been used to weaken the strong Swiss franc, unpegged since January 2015.

"Profit on foreign currency positions amounted to more than 19 billion Swiss francs," SNB said in a provisional statement.

"A valuation gain of 3.9 billion Swiss francs was recorded on gold holdings," it added.

Speaking to local media Swissinfo, UBS bank Chief Investment Officer at UBS bank Alessandro Bee said "the strong results are reflected in a strong stock market rally after the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency and a strengthening dollar."

He also noted that the SNB's main priority was to stabilize the national currency, as opposed to making profits.