CIBC beats estimates with credit loss provisions lower than expected

financialpost.com:

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce beat analysts’ estimates as it set aside less money than expected for possible loan losses.

The Toronto-based lender earned $1.75 per share on an adjusted basis in the fiscal second quarter, it said in a statement Thursday, topping the $1.65 average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. CIBC’s provisions for credit losses totalled $514 million for the three months through April, less than the $567 million analysts had forecast.

That stood in contrast to Bank of Montreal, which missed analysts’ estimates Wednesday as it reported $705 million for the quarter Wednesday in provisions for loan losses in the quarter, sending its stock slumping. Bank of Nova Scotia and Toronto-Dominion Bank earlier reported loan-loss provisions of more than $1 billion each.

CIBC has grappled with higher provisions in the past owing to the bank’s United States office-loan portfolio. But executives said earlier this year that the issue was largely behind the lender after it took steps to reduce its exposure to such debt.

The bank’s overall net income increased 3.6 per cent to $1.75 billion.

Bloomberg.com