On TV.com: THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR photos

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce F4Q07 (Qtr End 10/31/07) Earnings Call Transcript

  • download
  • Print
  • Recommend
  • 0

2007-12-09 00:13:00.0

Tags: Canadian Imperial Bank, Coles Myer

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Thank you, we will now take questions from the telephone line. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question is from Brad Smith from Blackmont Capital. Please go ahead.

Brad Smith - Blackmont Capital

Yes, it's sort of a two-prong question. First of all, Gerry I was wondering, in your opening remarks you made some reference about subprime mix, I think 60% was what you said. I just wasn't clear what the other 40% was, is it all day, is it some other mortgage exposure? And then the second question relates to the hedged CDO/RMBS and the position with the single A rated financial... U.S. financial granters. I was just curios that notional amount of $3.5 or $3.46 billion and seems like a rather large amount for a single credit exposure, is that somehow different in the criteria that you would use in managing your loan credit exposures for example?

Gerald T. McCaughey - President and Chief Executive Officer

Well I'll start with the second question first and then Tom will give you a breakdown of the exposures on the subprime percentages. The transaction question on the single A were intermediation transactions and essentially those are back-to-back derivative transactions, it's now clear that the combination of having a concentrated exposure to a single A rated counter party in a significantly stressed market is not a position, that we would chose to be in.

At the onset here, the securities underlying the A rated hedge were rated as AAA super senior. As a result of that the coverage to that normal risk management systems would throw off from the view point of our credit risk equivalent, the coverage of a single A would under the risk management systems least efficient to offset that.

The issue here is that the structuring features that were to provide the protections, that one would have expected have not functioned the way that we thought in a significantly stressed marketplace. Now that has led to a number of changes in our risk management practices. First and foremost, we're not doing this type of business anymore. Secondly, in addition to the normal credit risk equivalent, we have put on, notional limit for any assets that would resemble that.

And thirdly in our normal loan practices, this is not something that could take place because there are concentration limits around industries and concentration limits around single name exposures that would pick up this type of issue. Does that answer your second question?

TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic
What do you think?
The following tags are supported in BNET comments: <b></b> <i></i> <u></u> <pre></pre>
You are currently a guest | Login?
advertisement
Recommended Business Articles
advertisement