BOJ to Implement New FX Trading Platform

Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Governor, Richard Byles, has announced plans to implement a new foreign exchange trading platform in 2020.

“We are going to be testing and implementing it January into February… then we will start the use of it throughout the trading operations with the commercial banks,” he said.

Mr. Byles was speaking at the Bank’s quarterly briefing at the BOJ in downtown Kingston on Thursday (November 21).

Mr. Byles explained that the new platform will enable foreign exchange traders, both buyers and sellers, to see all of the bids on daily offers, noting that it is designed to create “a lot more transparency in the market”.

“So you don’t have to depend on giving an order and then hearing by telephone, three hours later, that you only received 10 per cent or you didn’t get it. You will be able to see [all of the activities for] yourself and, in fact, give instructions right at the moment,” he outlined.

The Central Bank currently utilises the BOJ Foreign Exchange Intervention and Trading Tool (B-FXITT) for sales to market intermediaries.

The facility, which was introduced in 2017, utilises two mechanisms to announce a four-week schedule of the total amount of foreign exchange that it will sell to the market via auctions, each week.

These are the Standard Intervention Tool (SIT) and Flask Intervention Tool (FIT).

Under the SIT, the Bank sells pre-announced amounts of foreign exchange to authorised dealers and cambios. The amount of the intervention sale is partly determined by the BOJ’s assessment of the market’s liquidity needs.

The FIT entails flash foreign exchange sales by the BOJ outside of the regular intervention window in circumstances of adverse market developments.

It is tailored to offset the effects of excessive volatility in the foreign exchange market and/or abnormal market demand or supply.