The reported yen purchase would be the first U.S. operation to support Japan's currency since 1998. Neither the Treasury nor the New York Fed had published the transaction amount.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York sold euros to buy Japanese yen for the U.S. Treasury on Friday, July 31, 2026, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the transaction. The dollar fell 1.9% against the yen that day to ¥157.57 per dollar. The reported purchase would be the first U.S. operation aimed at supporting the yen since 1998.
The Treasury and the New York Fed had not published an operation statement or transaction amount as of August 1, U.S. Eastern time. The Financial Times said the New York Fed declined to comment, while the Treasury did not immediately respond to its request for comment.
Reported euro sales and yen purchases by the New York Fed
The Financial Times said three people familiar with the matter confirmed that the New York Fed conducted the euro sales and yen purchases on behalf of the Treasury. Two of those people said the transactions went through Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
The New York Fed had conducted a rate check in the dollar-yen market for the Treasury on Thursday, according to the report. A rate check asks currency dealers for current prices and can precede a direct transaction, but it is not itself a purchase or sale.
The dollar weakened about 4% against the yen on Thursday as traders speculated that Japanese authorities had also entered the market. On Friday, the dollar lost another 1.9% to end at ¥157.57. Those are separate daily moves; the Thursday decline preceded the U.S. transaction reported for Friday.
$5 billion to $10 billion under consideration in the photographed note
Earlier Friday, a Reuters photograph from a cabinet meeting at Camp David showed a note in front of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent referring to a possible purchase of $5 billion to $10 billion worth of yen.
That range described a contemplated action on the photographed note. Neither the photograph nor the Financial Times report established that $5 billion to $10 billion was the amount ultimately traded. The executed amount remained undisclosed.
Bank of Japan policy rate at 1.0%
The Bank of Japan separately kept its short-term policy rate around 1.0% on July 31. The decision passed by an 8-1 vote. Board member Hajime Takata proposed raising the rate to around 1.25%, but the proposal was defeated.
The BOJ's policy statement was released at 12:11 p.m. Japan time, before the reported U.S. transaction during Friday's foreign-exchange session. The rate decision and the currency operation were separate actions by different authorities.
The yen had touched its weakest level against the dollar since 1986 on July 23, according to the Financial Times. The newspaper said the Treasury had informed several Wall Street banks before Friday's transaction that it was considering action to support the Japanese currency.
The comparable U.S. yen purchase in 1998
On June 17, 1998, U.S. monetary authorities sold $833 million for yen in coordination with Japanese authorities, according to the New York Fed's official record. The operation was executed by the New York Fed's trading desk and divided evenly between the Federal Reserve System and the Treasury's Exchange Stabilization Fund.
The United States also participated in a coordinated currency operation in 2011, but that action was designed to weaken the yen after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The July 31 transaction reported by the Financial Times was instead intended to support the yen, making 1998 the relevant comparison.
As of August 1, U.S. Eastern time, the reported operation's exact size had not been made public. The confirmed public figures were the BOJ's 1.0% policy rate and the New York Fed's $833 million historical operation in 1998; the current transaction amount remained unconfirmed.