Sustainable Business Magazine talks to Gillian Charles-Gollop, the outgoing Executive Director of Corporate Banking and Sustainable Finance at CIBC Caribbean, about the bank’s actions in guiding the region towards a more resilient future.
CIBC Caribbean’s sustainability story is inseparable from its long history in the region and is rooted in a conviction that the Caribbean’s future must be climate resilient, inclusive and opportunity rich for its people. Gillian Charles-Gollop, the bank’s retiring Executive Director of Corporate Banking and Sustainable Finance, shared an overview of the bank’s journey with Sustainable Business Magazine:
“CIBC Caribbean has been in the Caribbean for over a hundred years tracing back its roots to our legacy organisations, CIBC out of Canada and Barclays Bank. The two entities merged in the region around 2002 and formed FirstCaribbean International Bank; CIBC assumed majority ownership in 2006. We rebranded in 2024 as CIBC Caribbean to align more closely with our parent, reinforcing our commitment to innovation and client-centric service across the region.
“We originally operated across 17 Caribbean territories but in the last couple of years we exited our businesses in the Dutch Caribbean and in some islands of the Eastern Caribbean, reducing our physical footprint to 10 countries. We did that to consolidate and streamline our activities to support a more strategic digital transformation across the region. This aligns with our strong vision of being the first choice for omnichannel financial services in the Caribbean, putting clients at the center of everything that we do.”
At the heart of this agenda is making sustainability a strategic pillar rather than an afterthought.
“As the Executive Director, Corporate Banking & Sustainable Finance lead for CIBC Caribbean, one key driver is to develop and expand our sustainable finance activities across the region,” says Ms. Charles-Gollop. “This is aligned to a shared passion of ‘accelerating climate action’. It’s one of our primary targets under our sustainability strategy. This approach is to innovate and grow our portfolio in green and transition financing.”
Financing climate resilience
CIBC Caribbean’s sustainable finance platform is built on a client centric focus, strategic partnerships and a methodology that is aligned with global taxonomies tailored to Caribbean realities.
“One area of focus is building on our strategic partnerships,” explains Ms. Charles-Gollop. “These strategic alliances with multilaterals, development finance agencies and other regional or international banks are essential for mobilizing capital, enabling the bank and its partners to support transactions that advance sustainable initiatives in the region.
“We achieved a notable milestone in our sustainable finance agenda in May 2024, when we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IDB Invest, the private sector financing arm of the Inter-American Development Bank. This partnership focused on advancing sustainable initiatives throughout the region. Through this collaboration, CIBC Caribbean and IDB Invest are working closely on a range of sustainability activities. Central to these efforts is the implementation of risk sharing and enhancing our sustainable finance framework for green and thematic initiatives. These actions not only help to mobilize capital within CIBC Caribbean but also enable the provision of more attractive concessional financing options to our clients, especially in renewable energy, energy transition and resilient social infrastructure.”
The bank has already channelled substantial capital into renewables and energy transition projects across the region.
“We have played a significant role in advancing renewable energy throughout the region. The bank’s committed and drawn financing stands at over US$200 million contributing to an estimated installed capacity of 213 MW. To date, we have arranged or participated in bilateral and syndicated financing transactions totaling US$676 million in Renewable Energy.”
CIBC Caribbean’s involvement spans a wide geographic area, financing energy projects developed across the Cayman Islands, Curaçao, The Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica. The bank has supported both small- and large-scale renewable energy initiatives and green transport, underscoring its ongoing commitment to sustainable development.
In addition to its work in the energy sector, CIBC Caribbean has demonstrated leadership in supporting the regional tourism industry’s sustainability efforts. The bank is recognised in the sector as one of the leading regional financiers for the hotel & tourism industry which are key contributors to Caribbean economies.
Beyond energy and tourism, CIBC Caribbean has established itself as a major financier and partner in the development of key regional infrastructure. Working alongside other international and regional banks, the institution has helped deliver essential projects, including hospitals, seaports and airports, further supporting economic growth and resilience across the Caribbean.
Underpinning this, as Ms. Charles-Gollop explains, is a region-specific sustainable finance framework aligned with the CIBC group’s 2030 commitments:
“Effective November 2024, CIBC Caribbean took an important step in advancing its sustainability agenda by adopting CIBC’s Sustainable Finance Methodology with a customized annex relevant for the Caribbean region. The framework outlines the environmental and social activities that are eligible for sustainable finance under the taxonomy. This aligns CIBC Caribbean’s activities with the broader CIBC Group’s pledge to mobilize CAD $300 billion in sustainable finance initiatives by 2030. The bank’s regional adaptation of this methodology demonstrates a clear commitment to supporting transformational projects across the Caribbean, and we continue to invest time and resources to our continuous improvement.
“We reached another significant milestone when the first qualifying project was supported under the new framework: the award-winning 2024 Government of Barbados Sustainability-Linked Loan.
Landmark blue and green deals
For Ms. Charles Gollop, CIBC Caribbean’s leadership is most visible in complex blended finance transactions that simultaneously reduce government debt, unlock concessional capital and protect natural assets:
“In 2022, we partnered with another bank to co-lead the Barbados Blue Loan financing – a US$146.5 million debt-for-nature swap. This initiative enabled the government to reduce its debt service obligations in exchange for more concessional funding, supported by guarantees from IDB Invest. The resulting savings are redirected to support marine conservation. This helped to successfully advance Barbados’ Marine Spatial Plan and, through the Barbados Environmental Conservation Trust, is enabling environmentally-focused agencies to support coastal resiliency and protecting biodiversity.
“The second sustainable finance transaction we executed in November 2024 as lead arranger and co-lender, is the US$296 million (BBD592 million) Barbados Sustainability-Linked Loan. Once again, this transaction reduced the government’s debt service obligations, supported by US$300 million in guarantees from IDB Invest and the European Investment Bank. This structure allowed the commercial bank syndicate to offer concessional funding and is a good example of capital mobilization, where a total of five financial institutions come together to make this happen.”
Beyond financial engineering, these structures are designed to deliver concrete environmental and resilience outcomes and afforded CIBC Caribbean global awards and recognition.
“Those fiscal savings helped the government to do two things,” elaborates the Executive Director. “First, it created space for Barbados to secure US$110 million in funding from the Green Climate Fund and IDB to upgrade its South Coast Sewage Treatment Plant into a modern water reclamation facility. Secondly, this investment will reduce marine and groundwater pollution, improve water security, and supply high quality reclaimed water for agricultural use, an essential step for one of the region’s most water scarce and food import dependent countries.”
Communities at the core
CIBC Caribbean’s sustainability credentials are equally defined by its long running social investment, philanthropy and employee driven community programmes. At the centre of this work is the ComTrust Foundation, which has channelled over US$30 million into education, health and social impact across the region. Ms. Charles-Gollop explains:
“Around 2003, we started the ComTrust Foundation, which is a charitable arm of CIBC Caribbean. We have committed to investing at least one million US dollars every year into the foundation to support community engagement.
“One of the initiatives that we started as part of this program was our Unsung Heroes, where we recognize and reward ordinary people across the region who were quietly making a difference in their communities. We had paused for a few years but it was relaunched in 2025. We award the recipients for their contribution and also donate to the charitable initiatives that they’re involved with.”
Education, health and youth opportunity are key themes, often delivered through partnerships with regional institutions.
“We also have an MOU with The University of the West Indies,” Ms. Charles-Gollop says. “Every year we donate towards scholarships, research and innovation. We have a paid summer internship program and in 2025 we had over 80 interns from across the region in our business.
“We have our Adopt-a-Cause program which our employees get to engage and lead. Across our region each territory and bank branch has the ability to volunteer service towards a social care initiative. That could be supporting a nearby school, community group, or some other organisation trying to make a difference. The bank then provides support to those initiatives.
“We also have a strong record of stepping up in times of crisis and support of regional disaster recovery, something that’s increasingly important for the region as climate change progresses:
“In October 2025, Jamaica was significantly affected by Hurricane Melissa, and we supported the relief efforts with US$500,000 donated. In 2022, we donated a field hospital to the Barbados government through their defence force and supported Barbados in getting that field hospital into Jamaica to provide medical assistance. Over several years, we have provided relief support to various islands across our footprint, that were impacted by similar disaster events.
“We’ve also supported the CCRIF SPC (formally the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) in November 2023, contributing US$80,000 to acquire weather monitoring equipment donated to certain islands in the region.”
Looking ahead
For CIBC Caribbean, the future of sustainability is about scale: more capital mobilised, more adaptation and resilience projects, and a stronger alignment between digital transformation and sustainable outcomes.
“We have been financing clean energy going back to 2010 and we will continue to do so,” Ms. Charles-Gollop says. “It’s part of our Accelerate Climate Action strategy and this extends to other climate adaptation projects, whether that is coastal resilience or building stronger infrastructure.
Ultimately, Ms. Charles Gollop frames CIBC Caribbean’s sustainability journey as a natural expression of being a Caribbean bank, deeply embedded in the societies it serves and determined to help them thrive in a changing climate and, with the international expertise of the CIBC Group, committed to making a real difference.
“The Caribbean is where we live and work. These are the communities that we’re part of. So, one of the things we see as our mission is to be the first for our communities and we are giving back. It is not just a responsibility. It is part of our DNA because this is who we are. I can speak authentically in public forums with confidence because CIBC Caribbean is committed to the advancement of the region. While my journey here is closing, I am pleased that the team in place are experienced, highly professional and remain equally committed to this purpose.”
