FACTBOX-SNB's route back to conventional monetary policy

March 11 (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank inched closer to a first rise in interest rates with a more optimistic view on growth on Thursday, but it knocked back expectations it would soften its stance on curbing excessive currency gains.

The SNB dropped its pledge to provide the economy with a generous supply of liquidity, in another step to unwind its drastic measures taken last year to fight Switzerland's worst recession in more than three decades.

Here are the key points on the SNB's unwinding of measures taken in the financial crisis:

ULTRA-LOW INTEREST RATES

The SNB has kept its target for the three-month Swiss franc Libor at 0.25 percent since March 2009. The central bank has offered funds at 0.05 percent in its repo operations over the last year in order to keep the LIBOR at that level.

INTERVENTIONS

The SNB repeated at its March meeting that it would act decisively to prevent an excessive appreciation of the Swiss franc against the euro.

Until the December meeting, the central bank had said it would fight any appreciation of the franc.

Since December, the franc has gained over 3 percent against the euro.

LIQUIDITY

The SNB dropped its pledge to provide the economy with a generous supply of liquidity on Thursday.

The SNB already stopped offering 3-, 6- and 12-month liquidity late last year. The central bank's seasonally adjusted base money has fallen from a peak of 117.5 billion francs hit last April to 85.1 billion in January.

CORPORATE BONDS

The central bank officially ended the purchase of Swiss franc-denominated corporate bonds at its Dec. 10 meeting after it had bought some 3 billion francs worth of bonds since March, mainly adding covered bonds to its balance sheet.

COVERED BONDS

Last year, the SNB brokered a number of deals based on covered bonds in order to get liquidity from cash-rich regional banks to the country's two big banks UBS(UBSN.VX) and Credit Suisse(CSGN.VX).

The last transaction was conducted in mid-2009.

DOLLAR REPOS

The SNB ended its provision of dollar liquidity for banks in Switzerland in January, in line with other central banks.

FX SWAPS

The bank has also ended its swap agreements with the European Central Bank as well as the Polish and Hungarian central banks, which had provided Swiss franc liquidity against euros to banks outside Switzerland.

(Reporting by Sven Egenter; editing by Patrick Graham)