BoJ reps at foreign exchange conference in NY

This week, Jamaica joined 67 other nations in participating in the 2025 Foreign Exchange Reserve Portfolio Management Conference in New York City.

The four-day in-person programme was organised jointly by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. The conference is an annual event and includes a full schedule of workshops and training sessions that are designed to promote knowledge-sharing among reserve managers and central bankers globally on foundational foreign reserves management topics, as well as trends in reserve management and US monetary policy.

Jamaica was represented by Richard Byles, governor of the Bank of Jamaica, and Conrad Simms, executive at the Bank of Jamaica in Kingston.

Among the areas of interest are recent developments in US monetary policy, US treasury markets and other US dollar-denominated financial markets. During the conference, the Jamaican team met with the executive vice president and general auditor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Clive Blackwood, who is Jamaican.

“I had the distinct honour of visiting with Governor Byles when I was in Jamaica a few years ago to speak at my alma mater, Ardenne High School, so it was a great pleasure and a singular honour to host and meet with my esteemed central bank colleagues from Jamaica on their visit to the New York Fed,” Blackwood told The Gleaner.

The conference ended on Thursday with sessions on US foreign reserves and the international role of the US dollar.