Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Q3 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Question on expenses, and I appreciate the guidance you gave for us, that was helpful. But it's more of a technical one, I guess, on the variable side of things where the costs are moving up higher and this is not just the CIBC issue. I'm wondering if there's some -- is it entirely revenue driven? Or is there a component that's tied to employment dynamics or like incentives or retention costs that have been moving higher because there's a lot of competition for talent out there. I was wondering if that's playing a role at all in that line or maybe in the fixed cost element of compensation?

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Okay. And then if I interpret your messaging that -- correctly that the -- excluding variable comp, the number we saw 3% will be in and around that level for the next little while in terms of growth?

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : No outlook for 2022, yet?

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : I'm a little bit embarrassed to kind of come back to the -- to some of the details here after that. But one question quickly for Jon Hountalas. Jon, utilization rates in the commercial -- Canadian Commercial, how are they -- where are they relative to pre-pandemic levels? Jon Hountalas - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce - Senior EVP and Group Head of Commercial Banking & Wealth Management-Canada Thank you for the question. They went down materially at the beginning of the pandemic. They've moved a bit, but not a lot. Again, a lot of clients asked for increases during the pandemic. The increases are still there. So we haven't seen a huge uplift in utilization.

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : Okay. And just very quickly for Laura. I think there's obviously some good momentum in your business. I think you had some statistics here around market share gains and what have you. Has the low-hanging fruit, if you will, in you kind of getting back to the mix, has that been picked? Or do you still see reason for you to be able to continue on that regaining market share and maybe even picking up market share beyond your natural share? Laura L. Dottori-Attanasio - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce - Senior EVP & Group Head of Personal and Business Banking - Canada Thanks, Sohrab. Look, we've been really pleased as I said earlier with the momentum and that's across all of our lines of business. We do want to continue to deliver consistent and sustainable market-leading growth. And I think that we still have that ability to do that. We continue to make strategic investments in our business, and we're working hard to be in a position to continue to grow. So I would expect to continue to see us on a positive trend.