2008-08-27 Q3:

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s third-quarter has ended mercifully. Amid the “we beat expectations” drumbeat from the financial media, CIBC disclosed a splendid 91 percent cliff dive in year-on-year profits. Among the damage was an $885M subprime-related write-down, as was an increase of $27M in loan-loss reserves, bringing the total to $203M. The bank raised about $3B in capital for the quarter. We are counting their level 3 assets as zero until further notice.

Here’s the tally thus far:

1. Write-Downs/Charge-Offs: $6.7B + $885M = $7.585B
2. Cash Raised: $2.9B
3. Level III Assets: $0.0
4. Loan Loss Reserves: $203M
   

We now sum all the distresses to get CIBC’s current Misery Index of $10.69B. <>

2008-06-23 Mono Line Crunches CIBC:

In addition to the run-of-the-mill subprime-related write-downs of $2.5B in the second quarter, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce just ran smack into the fallout of the insurer downgrades last week.

The running tally is $5.7B + $1B to be tacked on. It is very possible that the bank’s capital raised total soon will go positive as well. <>

2008-05-29:

CIBC once again took the largest chunk of subprime-related write-downs for the latest quarter among Canada’s biggest banks and increased its loan loss provisions by 6%.

Besides $2.5B in subprime write-downs, the second quarter scoreboard included:

a net loss of C$1.1 billion, or C$3 a share, compared with year-earlier net income of C$807 million, or C$2.27 a share. The latest results included a net C$4.54 a share in charges, with C$4.37 of that coming from structured-credit losses. Revenue tumbled 96% to C$126 million.

Total so far is $3.2B + $2.5B = $5.7B

2008-02-20:

In its annual accountably report, CIBC said that 2007 net income was $3.3B, down 7% from 2006. The 2007 revenue decreased primarily due to mark-to-market write-downs on collateralized debt obligations and residential mortgage-backed securities related to the U.S. residential mortgage market. The bank took a total of $753M in pretax charges in 2007 related to its U.S. subprime exposure.

The sum total of subprime-related write-downs as of this date is at least $3.2B, $2B of which was to ACA Capital following a downgrade of the insurer by Standard & Poor’s. In fact, the failure of the monoline insurance industry represents the bank’s greatest risk of future subprime-related write-downs. CIBC has disclosed exposure of $8B related to the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

Concerns are largely focused on the bank’s remaining exposure to the U.S. bond insurance industry, where even the biggest companies in the sector have seen their stock prices plummet amid concerns about how they will deal with the financial crisis.

Future losses are estimated at $1.6B and $4.1B for first quarter and full year 2008. Past results are $753M (pre-tax) charges and 3.2B of write-downs due to U.S. subprime mortgage losses.