Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)

CIBC identified and prioritised its impacts through a materiality assessment process which included feedback from external stakeholders. In terms of senior leadership accountability, CIBC assigns the responsibility for sustainability issues to the board of directors. The financial institution publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It aims to reach between 35 and 40% women in board-approved executive roles by 2022 and has a gender-balanced board of directors where seven out of 14 members are women.

CIBC has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It also discloses that it issued USD 500 million worth of green bonds aligned with the International Capital Market Association Green Bond Principles.

CIBC has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. Furthermore, it discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. The financial institution has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding the issue. CIBC discloses the amount of finance it directs towards small- and medium-sized enterprises.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, CIBC has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its executive or management teams to sustainability performance criteria. The bank also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions and disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the financial institution takes action to address any pay gaps at the group level. CIBC has an opportunity to describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients and investees, across its financing activities.

While CIBC has an interim intensity target for oil and gas sector, it has an opportunity to disclose an interim absolute emission reduction target which covers all its financing activities. It also has an opportunity to disclose the key sectors and companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, specifically on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, the bank could disclose time-bound targets explicitly for its climate solutions. No evidence was found regarding CIBC’s approach to fossil fuels that spans across the fossil fuel value chain and across its financing activities, such as the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels, or its stance on financing companies with new fossil fuel projects. Regarding nature and biodiversity, the bank has an opportunity to commit to minimising its negative impacts or financing regenerative solutions.

There is no evidence that CIBC has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights laid out in the UN Guiding Principles and the ILO declaration on fundamental rights at work. It has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. Furthermore, the bank could disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. While the financial institution discloses that it directs finance towards indigenous communities, it could provide an amount. In addition, CIBC has an opportunity to disclose the amount of finance directed towards low-income developing countries.