Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

Good morning. Welcome to the CIB CQ3 Quarterly Results Conference Call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Jeff Weiss, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Jeff.

Thank you and good morning. We'll begin this morning's call with opening remarks from Victor Dodig, our President and Chief Executive Officer, followed by Rob Sedran, our Chief Financial Officer, and Frank Guse, our Chief Risk Officer. Also on the call today are a number of our senior executives, including Harry Collum, our Chief Operating Officer, Sean Bieber, U.S. Commercial and Wealth Management, Raj Panosian, Personal and Business Banking, and Susan Rimmer, Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management. They're all available to take questions following the prepared remarks. We have a hard stop at 8.30 and would like to give everyone a chance to participate. So as usual, we ask that you please limit your questions to one and re-queue in the Q&A. We'll make ourselves available after the call for any follow-ups. 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. I would also remind listeners that the bank uses non-GAAP financial measures to arrive at adjusted results. Management measures performance on a reported and adjusted basis and considers both to be useful in assessing underlying business performance. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Victor.

Thanks, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin the call today with three key messages. The first message is that our client focus and execution mindset has culminated into another clean quarter with strong performance across all of our business units in the third quarter. The second message is that our strategy is working and we're well positioned to continue relative outperformance. The depth of our client relationships, our strong balance sheet, and our robust capital position are serving us well. We're resilient and we're prepared for shifts in economic conditions. And the third message is our CEO transition continues to progress very well. Today marks my final earnings call as CEO of CIBC. And on November the 1st, I'll pass the baton to Harry Cullum with confidence, knowing that our bank is in good hands. The leadership announcements we made earlier this month will further accelerate the execution of our strategy under Harry's leadership and provide strong continuity across our leadership team entering the new fiscal year. So let's move on to highlights from our adjusted third quarter results. We delivered net income of $2.1 billion, which is up 11% from the prior year, and earnings per share of $2.16, up 12%. Pre-provision, pre-tax earnings were also up 12%, supported by broad-based growth across all of our operating units, healthy margin expansion, and the eighth consecutive quarter of positive operating leverage. Our credit portfolios are resilient, and they are performing at the favorable end of the guidance that we provided at the start of the year. The relative and absolute strength of our credit quality is a direct result of prudent underwriting and advanced analytics. It's equally a reflection of our disciplined client focus and deep client relationships. We know our clients well. We know their businesses, their industries, and their growth ambitions. And this allows us to make thoughtful credit decisions with a long-term view. Now moving to capital. We ended the quarter with a robust 13.4% CET1 ratio while repurchasing 5.5 million common shares during the quarter. Our excess capital position provides us with flexibility. We have the resources to support our clients' growth ambitions going forward while continuing to optimize our capital position. And to that end, as we continue to return capital to our shareholders, we've also announced our intention to launch another normal course issuer bid for 2% of our outstanding common shares. Even with our elevated capital buffer and cyclically higher PCLs, we generated a return on equity of 14.2% this quarter, which is up 20 basis points from the prior year. This marked the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year ROE improvement. And our team remains laser focused on achieving our ROE target over the medium term. And we have the full confidence in the earnings power of our bank. By consistently executing against our client-focused strategy, we will continue to deliver the profitable growth that our stakeholders expect from us. So here are a few recent examples of our progress. The first relates to launching innovative solutions to bolster our advisory businesses. particularly in our mass affluent and private wealth franchise. This quarter, our asset management team launched the CIBC Education Portfolios, a suite of five portfolio solutions designed to simplify education savings for Canadian families. We also announced the launch of a new dedicated business banking program that's tailored for skilled trades professionals. Our differentiated solutions for key client segments will continue to support our growth momentum in capital light fee-income-based businesses. And this week, we announced an innovative new checking account that recognizes our clients' relationship with us at each stage of their financial journey. Reflecting our relationship-oriented approach, the tiered CIBC Smart Account provides clients with more benefits as they deepen their relationships with us. The second example relates to our focus on expanding our digital-first banking capabilities for our clients. Earlier this quarter, we were recognized with the highest ranking in customer satisfaction for both online banking and mobile banking among Canada's five big banks in the latest JD Power study. Our deliberate, client-centric digital focus ensures that we exceed our clients' evolving expectations in a rapidly changing technology landscape. Our digital registration hit an important milestone this quarter, surpassing 10 million clients and encompassing 81% of our eligible client base, both highest to date. And finally, the third example is we're delivering connectivity and differentiation to our clients that benefit from everything that CIBC offers to meet their unique needs. This commitment to connectivity is driving real results. On a year-to-date basis, CIBC Capital Markets has a leading market share position with our strategic clients. Our capital markets franchise is also seeing strong momentum in the U.S. as we build our North American platform with revenue growth in the region up 37% year to date. This franchising focus is also growing cross-business referral volumes in the U.S. business, which are performing well above our targets and up 25% on an annualized year-to-date basis. These achievements underscore the impact of our collaborative approach at CIBC. and our ability to deliver value across geographies and across our businesses. Underpinning this progress is our commitment to enabling, to simplifying, and to protecting our bank. This quarter, our AI-powered voice assistant was recognized with the 2025 Digital CX Award for the best use of AI for customer experience. Our CIBC AI platform, which we call CAI, C-A-I, was also recognized with the Best Gen I Initiative Award, marking the second consecutive year we received this honor. Since its launch, this platform has transformed the way our CIBC team members across our businesses work and has saved an estimated 600,000 hours. And going forward, we're going to continue to drive further innovation across our bank in our AI journey under Harry's leadership. We're moving our bank forward. even as the operating environment remains uncertain. Global trade tensions may result in slower growth and higher inflation in many countries, including Canada and the United States. However, we anticipate that declining interest rates will help support economic growth, while fiscal policy will offer targeted relief to the sectors most affected by trade negotiations. As the global trade environment becomes clearer, we expect increased client activity, and we remain well positioned to capture emerging opportunities through our diversified platform. And regardless of what the macroeconomic environment serves up, we're going to continue to execute against our strategy. We're going to continue to support our clients. We're going to continue to control what we control and position CIBC for continued strength. In summary, we are continuing to outperform through the cycle. Amid trade disputes, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, The CIBC team has demonstrated improving profitability, top tier credit quality, and robust top line growth. Our core businesses have clear momentum and plenty of runway to continue delivering for all of our stakeholders. And with that, I'll pass it off to Rob to review our financial results in greater detail. Over to you, Rob.