The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has been awarded a ‘Best Bank Award 2025’ by international financial publication Global Finance.

The award was received recently by BOJ Governor Richard Byles during the publication’s world’s best awards ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington DC, while attending the International Monetary Fund/World Bank annual meetings.

Byles was also recognised as an ‘A’ grade central banker based on Global Finance’s Central Banker Report Card for 2025, which assessed the governors of nearly 100 central banks around the world.

BOJ’s grade topped the assessment of central bank leadership throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.  The report card has been published annually by the 38-year-old Global Finance since 1994.

The BOJ governor, in accepting the award, noted that the achievement, an improvement on the ‘A-‘ grade which the Jamaican central bank received from Global Finance in 2024, is a tribute to the diligent, professional and committed work consistently done by BOJ staff in service to Jamaica.

“This is a collective accomplishment that reflects BOJ staff’s unwavering commitment to serving the people of Jamaica by consistently and effectively delivering on our mandates, including inflation control, financial system stability and the supervision of deposit-taking institutions (DTIs),” Governor Byles noted.

He added that in the aftermath of the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Melissa on a significant number of Jamaicans and the country’s economic and social infrastructure, the central bank is committed to facilitating recovery through prudent and responsible policies and actions.

“We at BOJ are keenly aware that delivering effectively on our main mandate of price stability, and other key responsibilities including financial system stability, supervision of DTIs and coordination of the national payments system, are vital to supporting national recovery,” the BOJ governor said.

Global Finance editors, with input from the financial industry, grade the world’s leading central bankers based on objective and subjective metrics. The areas of assessment include monetary policy, supervision of the financial system, forecasting and guidance, transparency, independence from political control and direction, asset purchase and bond sales programmes, as well as success in meeting national mandates.

Global Finance commended BOJ for its consistency in monetary policy action to control inflation following hurricane disasters during 2024.

“While Jamaica and its economy were pummelled by hurricanes Beryl and Rafael in the second half of last year, the government and Bank of Jamaica maintained a steady macroeconomic course. BOJ maintained a hawkish stand after the COVID-19 pandemic to counter a surge in inflation. It held the monetary policy rate at seven per cent until August of last year, when reduced inflation allowed it to ease up, cutting the rate multiple times to reach 5.75 per cent in September (2025),” Global Finance noted in announcing the award to BOJ.