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, followed by Hiraj Panosian, our Chief Financial Officer, and Sean Bieber, our Chief Risk Officer. Also on the call today are a number of our group heads, including Mike Capitides, U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, Harry Cullum, Capital Markets, Laura Dottore Atanasio, Canadian Personal and Business Banking, and John Hantalas, Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management. They are all available to take questions following the prepared remarks. During the Q&A, to ensure we have enough time for everyone to participate and finish on time, we ask that you please limit your questions and re-queue. As noted on Q2 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'll now turn the meeting over to Victor.

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. I'll start our call today with some comments on our first quarter results and the operating environment. I'll then turn to call over to Haraj to review our financial performance in more detail. Earlier this morning we announced another quarter of record results with adjusted earnings of 1.9 billion Canadian dollars or $4.08 per share which is up 14% from last year. Our performance was supported by top line growth of 11% which drove positive operating leverage. Our first quarter results also underscore the ongoing strength of our highly connected franchise, an increasingly supportive economic environment, and steady execution against our strategic priorities. We're earning business from new clients, we're deepening relationships with existing ones, and we're continuing to build our CIBC franchise with the long-term in mind. We also reported an adjusted ROE of 17.6% and a CET1 ratio of 12.2%. the latter being 170 basis points above the regulatory minimum. Credit quality remains strong as the economy improved and our clients maintain high levels of liquidity. This morning, we also announced the proposed two-for-one stock split that will be voted at our annual meeting in April. Our stock price is appreciated significantly thanks to our collective focus on living our purpose and driving consistent financial results. That makes now a good time to announce a split which would make our shares more accessible to many retail investors. Turning to our business results. In our Canadian consumer franchise, we delivered market share gains in deposits and loans that will be further advanced when we officially become the exclusive provider of Costco MasterCards in Canada. This serves to grow and diversify our credit card portfolio, and we're looking forward to welcoming many new clients to our bank. We also continue to invest in our digital banking capabilities to meet the needs of our clients today and in the future. As just one example, we've recently announced a FinTech partnership with Encino to digitize and automate the client journey, enabling a faster, more efficient, and more transparent experience for our business owners. And earlier this week, we announced an exclusive partnership with Pollinate to launch Till by CIBC in Canada. Till, spelled T-Y-L, is a cloud-based, digital-first platform for small and medium-sized businesses that enables entrepreneurs to accept payments, administer loyalty programs, and gain insights into their business. It's already operating successfully in markets such as Australia and the United Kingdom with very positive feedback from business owners. We view this as an opportunity to bring an improved, modern service to over one million merchants in Canada and strengthen our CIBC client offerings in business banking. In our North American commercial banking and wealth management business, our unique structure provides us with an aligned focus on the private economy in both traditional and emerging industries. We co-locate our teams, we serve our entrepreneurial clients in an integrated fashion, and we drive solid cross-business referrals. Our structure, coupled with a constructive economic environment led to double-digit loan growth and solid banking growth, solid deposit growth, and commercial banking on both sides of the border. Wealth management activity also remained strong with double-digit growth in asset center management in both Canada and the United States, driven by market activity, strong investment performance, and solid net flows. In capital markets, robust client activity in foreign exchange and equities drove double-digit growth in our trading revenue. In the U.S., we are delivering on our objective to grow, with revenue increasing 36% from the prior year. As well, our differentiated capital markets franchise, a business that is highly connected to the rest of our bank, continues to deliver strong results. Revenue from non-traditional capital markets clients increased 17% over the prior year. Within our direct financial services business, we made further enhancements to our global money transfer capabilities by enabling real-time direct money transfers to eligible Visa debit and credit card holders in over 80 countries. This added capability comes at a time when client demand for digital and contactless banking options continues to grow. It's one of many examples of how CIBC is innovating at the forefront of the digital banking experience for our clients. During the quarter, we also advanced our shared ambition of building a more sustainable future. and creating social and economic opportunities for underserved communities, including an announcement of a new $100 million commitment dedicated to investing in low-carbon and climate tech funds to support new climate innovations. Our continued focus on enhancing environmental sustainability was also recognized by CDP, who reaffirmed our A- rating, placing CIBC amongst the highest-ranking Canadian financial institutions and in the top tier of banks globally. globally. More details on our progress on this and other important ESG initiatives will be available in our March publication of our sustainability report. Now, before I turn the call over to Haraj, I'd like to share my thoughts on the operating environment. We can all see that there's a fair amount of uncertainty driven by geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary pressures. These factors may have an impact on economic growth and client activity in the near term. Recognizing this economic backdrop, the most important thing I'd like to stress is that we've demonstrated over the past two challenging years that we have a strategic playbook that will not only support our clients, but also manage our risk and allow us to invest for future growth. We have a well-diversified, resilient portfolio, a strong balance sheet, prudent risk management, and a dedicated CIBC team that will continue to deliver for all of our stakeholders. And with that in mind, and with those comments, I'd like to turn it over to Raj for his commentary.