Slight Decrease to Our FVE for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as Expenses Creep Up a Bit

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is the fifth-largest bank in Canada by assets and one of six that collectively hold almost 90% of the nation's banking deposits. CIBC is more Canadian-focused than some of its more international peers, although this is changing after the acquisition of PrivateBancorp. The bank plans to eventually have up to 25% of revenue coming from the U.S. Despite having one of the larger domestic branch networks, CIBC’s products haven’t typically had top share in Canada, though the bank had made significant strides in multiple categories for years starting in 2011, as the bank increased share in multiple categories and increased product numbers per customer. This improvement has admittedly slowed down recently, although the bank took some incremental share again in 2021. Overall, we believe CIBC has improved its core operating performance over the years, and while the improvement has slowed and the bank's expense base is rising as CIBC continues to invest in technology and other aspects of the franchise, we still see the bank making incremental improvements over the medium term.