Veteran central banker and former regional financial stability adviser, Dr. R. Brian Langrin, has been named the new Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, BOJ.

The Ministry of Finance announced his appointment in a release on Monday.

Dr. Langrin’s appointment will be effective Wednesday, August 19.

He succeeds Richard Byles, whose term ends Tuesday after seven years.

Chevon Campbell tells us more.

The appointment was made by the Governor-General in Council following a selection process run by a Search Committee set up in April, which the ministry said considered a field of both local and international candidates.

Dr. R. Brian Langrin arrives with more than two decades in central banking, financial stability and multilateral development work.

He has held senior roles at the BOJ in financial stability and economic research.

He also served as a Financial Stability Adviser at the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre, CARTAC, the IMF-administered body that advises central banks across the region.

He holds a PhD in economics from Pennsylvania State University and has published extensively on financial stability and monetary policy.

Finance Minister, Fayval Williams, described him as a forward-looking leader whose experience spans Jamaica, the Caribbean and the wider international development community.

Dr. Langrin, in a statement, signalled continuity on the central bank’s core mandate.

He says he’s committed to preserving the Bank’s hard-won credibility and independence, to keeping inflation low and stable, and to advancing the modernisation of our financial system for the benefit of every Jamaican.

He says he will work with the BOJ team, the financial sector and regional and international partners to deepen resilience and support long-term development.

Richard Byles took office in August 2019 and steered monetary policy through what the ministry called some of the most testing conditions in a generation.

These include the COVID-19 economic shock, the global inflation surge that followed, Hurricane Beryl in 2024, the Category 5 Hurricane Melissa in 2025, and this year’s oil shock stemming from the Middle East war.

Langrin inherits an inflation problem on day one.

Point-to-point inflation reached 6.7 percent in June, the latest month for which the Statistical Institute of Jamaica has published figures.

It’s a 29-month high and the first breach of the Bank’s 4 to 6 percent target range since February 2024.