Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

Please stand by, your meeting is about to begin. Good morning and welcome to the CIBC Quarterly Financial Results Call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. I would like to turn the meeting over to Jeff Weiss, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Jeff.

Thank you and good morning. We will begin this morning's presentation with opening remarks from Victor Dodig, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Following Victor, Raj Panosian, our Chief Financial Officer, will review our operating results, followed by a risk management update from Sean Bieber, our Chief Risk Officer. Victor will close out the prepared remarks with a brief update on 2021. We are joined in the room by CIBC's business leaders, including Harry Cullum, Gloria Dottore Atanasio, and John Hantalas, as well as Mike Capatides, who has joined us remotely from the U.S. They will be available to take questions following the prepared remarks. As noted on slide two of our investor presentation, our comments may contain forward-looking statements which involve assumptions and have inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. With that, I will now turn the meeting over to Victor.

Thanks, Jeff, and good morning. Thanks for joining us, and we hope you're all doing well. 2020 was a year where we experienced a once-in-a-century health crisis that affected all aspects of our society. At the same time, It was a year of continued transformation for our bank as we focused on helping make our clients' ambitions a reality. Our CIBC team acted with urgency and with purpose to support our clients, one another and our communities, while building a relationship-oriented bank for a modern world. For the full year, adjusted revenue of $18.7 billion and pre-provision earnings of $8.2 billion were up over 2019, while expense growth was limited to just 2%. Net of a higher provision for credit losses that was primarily pandemic-related, adjusted earnings were $4.4 billion, or $9.69 per share. Our capital remained strong, with a CET1 ratio of 12.1%. Our investments in technology over the past several years to digitize and simplify our bank are allowing us to provide real-time, remote support to our clients at a time when physical distancing has become the norm. These efforts are being recognized by our clients with our highest client experience scores on record and recognition as the top performing banking brand during the pandemic. We'll continue to convert this momentum into deeper client relationships going forward. Now let me turn to our business performance. During the fourth quarter, we saw some improvement in the macroeconomic environment. The resulting increase in consumer activity was reflected in our Canadian personal and business banking franchises. with monthly improvement in card purchase volumes throughout the quarter. Client applications have also recovered from earlier lows and are generally back to positive year-over-year growth. We have invested in enhancing our product offerings and leveraging technology to capture this growth as the recovery takes hold. Our innovation is also being recognized as Rewards Canada recently named the CIBC Dividend Visa Infinite Card the top cashback card in Canada. We also continue to see positive momentum in our mortgage business in the fourth quarter, with year-over-year spot balance growth of 5% and sequential growth of 2%. To modernize and simplify the financial planning experience for our clients, we just launched CIBC Goal Planner. Coupled with expert advice, the platform will play a key role in building comprehensive financial plans for our clients, while leveraging data and insights to guide decision-making and track their progress digitally. We expect personalized advice and technology platforms like CIBC Gold Planner to create value both for our clients and for our shareholders over time. Turning to North American commercial banking and wealth management, loan growth continued to moderate as businesses maintained their conservative stance towards growth-oriented financing, given the uncertain economic outlook. Deposits remained elevated in the fourth quarter as our clients' focus continued to be on liquidity. To support our commercial banking clients, we continue to invest in our cash management platform and in our relationship management capability. This, along with our focus on growth markets, will strengthen our franchise as the economy recovers. Despite ongoing market volatility, we also saw continued robust net flows in our Canadian asset management and North American private wealth businesses. Following an exceptional third quarter for our capital markets business, we delivered a solid quarter, supported by continued strength in trading activity and a more constructive debt underwriting market from a year ago. Corporate banking commitments remain strong, increasing 10% year-over-year this quarter and surpassing fiscal 2019's 8% growth rate. During the quarter, we also continue to increase our focus on environmental, social, and governance matters to help create a more sustainable future. Our commitment to our communities is stronger than ever, Though we couldn't gather in person for the annual Canadian Cancer Society CIBC Run for the Cure, we took the run virtual, and our team raised over $2 million towards life-saving breast cancer research. We also took decisive actions to address systemic racism, including our recent partnership with the Government of Canada to launch Canada's first-ever Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund, which will help grow Black-led businesses. Importantly, we also continue to foster a more sustainable economy, hosting our first virtual sustainability conference, and the inaugural issuance of our U.S. $500 million five-year green bond to help finance new and existing green projects, assets, and businesses that mitigate the risks and effects of climate change. In addition, CIBC was named one of Canada's top 100 employers, our ninth consecutive year of receiving that honor, reflecting the strength of our culture. Now with that, let me turn the call over to Haraj for a more detailed review of our financial results.