FirstCaribbean International Bank and the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) have signed a strategic partnership agreement to work together that, among other things, provides hotel workers across the region with special concessions on loans and mortgages.With an estimated 1.3 million people working in the tourism industry in the Caribbean it is expected that an initiative such as this - granting special rates to hotel workers - should greatly facilitate the progress of the region’s people as they access financing to pursue their dreams and goals.

Furthermore, FirstCaribbean has also agreed to fund research done by CHA. As a financial institution, the Bank values timely and accurate information both for an understanding of present realities, as well as to forecast future trends.

The findings of any research undertaken by CHA should not only help that organisation in its planning but provide the Bank with information on an industry that is the main economic plank in most of the territories in which it operates.

Under the agreement, which, in part, should facilitate the development of programmes to benefit CHA member hotels, the association will also make FirstCaribbean International Bank its official bank.

FirstCaribbean also became an Allied Board Member upon signing the agreement and through that avenue will have a solid connection to the most significant economic engine for regional economies.

Horace Cobham, Executive Director of Corporate Banking in signing the Strategic Partnership Agreement noted that while FirstCaribbean’s relationship with the Caribbean Hotel Association is outlined in it formally for one year, he expects that “the relationship will evolve into a longstanding one that goes beyond mere words on parchment, because both FirstCaribbean and the CHA are committed to the longterm development of the region.”

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