The Bank of Jamaica announced it has been awarded Global Finance’s ‘Best Bank Award 2025’, and that Governor Richard Byles was also rated an ‘A’ grade central banker in the publication’s Central Banker Report Card for 2025. In accepting the recognition, Byles said the central bank will support recovery after Hurricane Melissa through prudent policies while continuing to deliver its mandates, including price stability, financial system stability, supervision of deposit-taking institutions and coordination of the national payments system. Global Finance presented the award at its World’s Best Bank Awards Ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings. The publication said the ‘A’ rating was an improvement on the Bank’s ‘A-’ grade in 2024 and was the highest among central bank leadership in the Caribbean and Latin America; the report card assesses factors including monetary policy, financial system supervision, forecasting and guidance, transparency, political independence, asset purchase and bond sales programmes and success in meeting national mandates. Global Finance also cited the Bank’s inflation-focused policy stance following hurricane disruptions in 2024, noting it held the monetary policy rate at 7% until August 2024 and then eased policy through multiple cuts as inflation declined, reaching 5.75% in September 2025.

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