cibc redirects here . for other uses see cibc disambiguation . canadian imperial bank of commerce type public traded as tsx cm nyse cm s & p tsx 60 component industry financial services banking founded 1961 headquarters commerce court toronto ontario canada key people victor dodig ceo and president charles sirois chairman revenue c 13.376 billion 2014 net income c 3.218 billion 2014 total assets c 414.903 billion 2014 number of employees 44 424 fte 2014 subsidiaries cibc firstcarribean cibc retail markets cibc wood gundy cibc world markets website www.cibc.com the canadian imperial bank of commerce french banque canadienne imp riale de commerce commonly referred to as cibc is one of the big five banks in canada . the bank is headquartered at commerce court in toronto ontario . 1 cibc s institution number or bank number is 010 and its swift code is cibccatt . the bank s two strategic business units cibc world markets and cibc retail markets also have international operations in the united states the caribbean asia and europe . globally cibc serves more than eleven million clients and has over 40 000 employees . the company ranks at number 172 on the forbes global 2000 listing . 2 cibc was named the strongest bank in north america and the 3rd strongest bank in the world by bloomberg markets magazine . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 forming canadian imperial bank of commerce 1.3 present 2 notable corporate activities and international operations 2.1 north america 2.2 caribbean and the west indies 2.3 restructuring and outsourcing 2.4 miscellaneous 3 corporate governance 4 awards and recognition 4.1 2009 5 sponsorships 6 credit agency ratings 7 settlements and controversies 7.1 enron 7.2 market timing 7.3 visa cardholders 7.4 voluntary refund of erroneous charges 7.5 privacy 7.5.1 2005 7.5.2 2007 7.6 employee overtime 8 significant buildings 8.1 gallery 9 see also 10 references 11 external links history edit the canadian imperial bank of commerce as it is known today came into being in 1961 . the bank was formed through the merger of the canadian bank of commerce and the imperial bank of canada . at the time they were two of canada s largest banks . origins edit commerce building c. 1930 now known as commerce court north in toronto main articles canadian bank of commerce and imperial bank of canada the honourable william mcmaster founded the canadian bank of commerce which opened on may 15 1867 in toronto as competition for the bank of montreal ; by 1874 it had 24 branches . the imperial bank of canada opened in toronto on march 18 1875 founded by former commerce vice president henry stark howland . by the end of 1895 the canadian bank of commerce had grown to 58 branches and the imperial bank of canada to 18 . the 1896 gold strike in the yukon prompted the dominion government to ask the canadian bank of commerce to open a branch in dawson city . acquisitions in the 1920s caused the commerce bank to become one of the strongest branch networks in canada with over 700 local branches ; and the bank opened international branches in cuba jamaica barbados and trinidad during the same period . wood gundy & company the precursor of cibc s investment banking arm opened its doors on february 1 1905 . during world war i it took a prominent and active role in the organization of victory loans . the canadian bank of commerce opened its new head office in toronto in 1931 . an observation gallery on the 32nd floor attracted visitors who could get an aerial view of the city . in 1936 the commerce was the first canadian bank to establish a personal loans department . following world war ii both banks opened new branches . although the banks had been barred from the mortgage business since 1871 the canadian government now called upon them to provide mortgage services . so in 1954 canadian banks started offering mortgages for new construction . forming canadian imperial bank of commerce edit in 1960 imperial chairman stuart mackersy approached neil mckinnon the president of the commerce with a proposal to merge the two banks . this followed a decade of expansion in the canadian economy and canada s capitalization of the industrialization of its natural resources . they quickly reached a deal between the two banks . the newly merged cibc commissioned a new logo to commemorate its 100th year of operation . the chevron logo was in use until 1994 4 on june 1 1961 the canadian bank of commerce and the imperial bank of canada merged to form the canadian imperial bank of commerce with over 1 200 branches across canada . the new bank possessed the greatest resources and the most branches of any bank in the country . following the merger the new bank commissioned a new head office . while planning to retain commerce court north the bank hired architect i. m. pei to design a three building complex . the result was commerce court consisting of a landscaped courtyard complementing the existing building and included the newly built 786 feet 240 m commerce court west . when completed in 1973 the 57 storey building was the tallest in canada and the largest stainless steel clad building in the world . in 1967 both canada and cibc celebrated their centenaries and cibc was the only chartered bank to have a branch on site at expo 67 . also at this time computerization began to change banking services and the yonge and bloor branch in toronto was the first canadian bank branch to update customer bank books via computer . this also marked the introduction of inter branch banking . before the decade was out cibc had introduced the first 24 hour cash dispenser which would eventually become the atm . changes to federal and provincial regulations ending the separation of banks investment dealers trust companies and insurance companies came in 1987 . cibc quickly took advantage of this and became the first canadian bank to operate an investment dealer cibc securities offering services to the public . in 1988 cibc acquired a majority interest in wood gundy which brought a well respected name and reputation in underwriting . shortly thereafter the corporation merged wood gundy and cibc securities under the name cibc wood gundy which became cibc oppenheimer in 1997 5 and later cibc world markets . in 1992 cibc introduced automated telephone banking ; in 1995 the bank launched its website and shortly thereafter began offering banking services online . in 1998 cibc joined with loblaws to create president s choice financial which it launched in 28 ottawa area stores . present edit this section needs expansion . you can help by adding to it . may 2010 cibc agreed to merge with the toronto dominion bank in 1998 . however the government of canada at the recommendation of then finance minister paul martin blocked the merger as well as another proposed by the bank of montreal with the royal bank of canada as not in the best interest of canadians . 6 cibc sold its corporate and purchasing credit card business to u.s. bank canada in october 2006 which joined it with business charge cards it previously acquired from royal bank of canada . in 2006 the stock ticker symbol on the new york stock exchange changed from bcm to cm to bring it in line with the ticker symbol on the toronto stock exchange . in december 2006 cibc acquired majority control of its publicly held joint venture firstcaribbean international bank for just over us 1 billion bds 2 billion when it purchased the 43.7 % stake owned by barclays bank . 7 cibc rebranded the division cibc firstcaribbean international bank in 2011 . 8 on february 12 2009 the trinidad and tobago express reported that cibc was pursuing discussions to buy cl financial s stake in the republic bank of trinidad and tobago . 9 as part of a bail out agreement of cl financial by the government of trinidad and tobago during the global financial crisis of 2008 2009 the corporation was required to sell republic and other assets . as of february 2011 cl financial had yet to agree to a sale . 10 in february 2010 cibc became the first chartered bank in canada to launch a mobile banking iphone app . it surpassed 100 000 downloads in just over one month following launch with over 1 million client logins to cibc mobile banking since its introduction . 11 12 four months later the bank announced it signed a deal to buy a c 2.1 billion credit card portfolio from citigroup s citibank canada master card business . 13 finally in october of that year cibc announced that it would be the first bank in canada to introduce the internationally used visa branded debit card . 14 in april 2013 cibc reached an agreement with invesco to acquire atlantic trust the company s based wealth management unit for us 210 million . 15 cibc announced in june 2016 that it would acquire the chicago based commercial bank privatebancorp for us 3.8 billion . 16 notable corporate activities and international operations edit this section needs expansion . you can help by adding to it . february 2011 north america edit cibc mellon global securities services formed by cibc and mellon bank corp. now bank of new york mellon of pittsburgh pa 1996 and canada trust s now td canada trust pension and custody business in 1997 canadian eastern finance limited cef formed by cibc and hutchison whampoa of hong kong ; includes cef capital limited cef investment management limited president s choice financial a joint venture between cibc and loblaw companies limited ; pc financial s banking services such as deposit accounts investments and credit products excluding mastercard are provided by a division of cibc retail markets formerly amicus bank . in 2005 amicus was dissolved as a separate legal entity . amicus fsb a similar setup as president s choice financial it was created in 1999 in the united states with winn dixie and safeway inc. under the marketplace bank and safeway select bank brands . it was disbanded in 2002 and sold to e trade bank . soltrus inc 2001 provider of digital trust services for businesses and consumers to communicate and transact over digital networks owned by cibc telus corp and verisign inc. aplettix inc 2000 firm specializing in secure transaction systems in the banking sector ; cibc signed an agreement with the new york based firm in 2000 but the project was later abandoned for alternatives such as verisign caribbean and the west indies edit main article cibc firstcaribbean international bank cibc firstcaribbean branch in bridgetown barbados in 1920 canadian bank of commerce established its first branches in the west indies in bridgetown barbados and in kingston jamaica . that same year it also opened branches in port of spain trinidad and havana cuba . its first branch in mexico city opened in 1910 . in 1957 the bank opened a branch in nassau the bahamas and in the subsequent years expanded its operations in jamaica . between 1963 and 1988 the bank expanded its branch network in barbados opened branches in st. vincent antigua and st lucia . in 1988 cibc sold 45 % of its shares in cibc jamaica via a public share issue . between 1993 and 1996 the bank restructured its holdings in the caribbean with the incorporation of cibc west indies holdings limited and cibc caribbean limited . cibc west indies holdings then sold 30 % of its shares to the public . in 1997 cibc issued 5 million shares in cibc bahamas limited to the public . on october 31 2001 barclays and cibc agreed to combine their caribbean operations to establish firstcaribbean international bank . cibc bought barclays stake in