By Nichola Saminather and C Nivedita
CIBC reported a 4 percent decline in fourth-quarter profit, and Canada's No. 5 bank by market value set aside C$402 million ($302.2 million) as provisions for bad loans, more than the C$286 million than analysts had expected. That included one impairment of C$52 million related to fraud, executives said on an analyst call..
A company spokeswoman declined to provide further details about the fraud.
CIBC shares fell 5.2% to close at C$108.88 in Toronto, the biggest daily decline since August 2009, wiping out C$2.6 billion in market value.
"Overall we view this as a very weak quarter... particularly given that it was largely a credit-related miss, which we suspect will be concerning to many of the bank’s shareholders," Mike Rizvanovic, an analyst at Credit Suisse, wrote in a note.
CIBC and Toronto Dominion Bank, Canada's largest bank by assets, were the last of the top six lenders to report. Both missed analyst estimates.
Net income in CIBC's Canadian retail banking business fell 10% to C$601 million from a year earlier. Canadian commercial banking and wealth management earnings were 0.5% lower, while the capital markets unit reported a 12% decline. Profit from CIBC's U.S. unit rose 21%.
Net income attributable to common shareholders, excluding one-off items, fell to C$1.31 billion, or C$2.84 per share the quarter, from C$1.36 billion, or C$3.00 per share a year ago.
Analysts on average had expected C$3.06 per share, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
(Reporting by Nichola Saminather in Toronto and C Nivedita in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Eluri)
