The opening of the First National Bank of Chicago’s seventh local branch in Ocho Rios marked an important milestone in Jamaica’s financial landscape. It reflected growing international confidence in the nation’s economy and highlighted Jamaica’s expanding role in global banking. This development signalled continued investment, strengthened partnerships, and increased access to financial services for communities across the island.

Published Thursday, November 14, 1974

First Chicago branch opened at Ocho Rios

During the administration of United States President Abraham Lincoln, the First Chicago National Bank started out in the banking business, and today, it has, in forty countries, a total of 71 banks. It started ten years ago to operate branches outside the United States and it now has branches in forty countries of the world, including Jamaica, which now has seven branches.

The seventh branch of this bank was opened at the new Ocho Rios shopping centre on Wednesday, November 6. The Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, the Hon. G. Arthur Brown, declared the bank open and, in his speech, told how the First National Bank of Chicago came to set up business in Jamaica. It was the then Minister of Finance, Mr. Edward Seaga, who sent him (Mr. Brown) to Ocho Rios to talk with an official of the bank who was holidaying in Ocho Rios about the setting up of a branch of that bank in Jamaica. He told of the bank’s participation in several commercial ventures and loans to the Government, statutory bodies, and private enterprise.

He recalled that the largest single loan which Jamaica has gotten to date, that of $50-m, was given by a syndicate of banking institutions, including the First National Bank of Chicago. The mutual trust and confidence between the Government of Jamaica and those banking institutions was evident in the fact that the loan was arranged on the basis of talks over the telephone.

The Hon. Dr. Osmond Tomlinson, Custos of St. Ann, said, “The occasion which brings us together here today is itself a very real expression of confidence, for it is a great expenditure of manpower, of planning, and of finance to set up another such vital financial institution in this relatively small community. But there is confidence in the community of Ocho Rios and confidence in the people of the area.”

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