CIBC chief executive officer Victor Dodig delivers a speech at the Canadian Club of Canada in Ottawa, Tuesday November 24, 2015.FRED CHARTRAND/The Canadian Press
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce continues to look for expansion opportunities in the United States, even as rising asset prices and a lower Canadian dollar have posed challenges for acquisition attempts for more than a year.
"We know that our business banking and our corporate banking clients are expanding from Canada into the U.S., as they deploy capital into that marketplace. We want to be able to bank them, both from a lending and deposit standpoint," CIBC's chief executive officer, Victor Dodig, said at the lender's annual general meeting in Vancouver on Tuesday.
Even though CIBC has been talking about the importance of expansion into the United States for some time, given that it is one of the most domestically-focused of Canada's Big Six banks, it announced late last year that it was selling its minority stake in American Century Investments (ACI) for about $1-billion (U.S.).
But rather than signalling a retreat, the divestment appears to have given CIBC more firepower.
"With the pending close of the sale of our stake in American Century Investments, we will have an even stronger financial base which will provide us flexibility to further pursue acquisition opportunities," Mr. Dodig said.
"We have been actively looking at opportunities but, as we have demonstrated with previous acquisitions, we will be patient and remain disciplined in our approach to ensure they meet our acquisition criteria: a good cultural and strategic fit, as well as being able to deliver growth within a target time frame," he said.
David Berman