Shareholders who fought hard for the right to vote on the pay schemes of financial executives will get their first opportunity to exercise their new power this week at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's annual meeting.
The country's nine largest financial institutions, including the big banks and major life insurers, are among the companies that agreed last year to give their shareholders a vote this year on a resolution approving how they compensate their top people.
CIBC is the first to hold its annual meeting, which is on Thursday.
One of the items of business is expected to be the so-called "say on pay vote," in which shareholders will be able to approve or disapprove of the bank's approach to executive compensation. What remains to be seen is what the bank will do if shareholders disapprove: The vote is understood to be advice only, and non-binding.
Also of interest at the meeting: former Manulife Financial Corp. chief executive Dominic D'Alessandro is being named to CIBC's board, a decision that is sure to draw a question or two from shareholders.
The meeting will take place hours after CIBC releases its first-quarter financial results, kicking off earnings season for the banks.
National Bank of Canada will also disclose its results Thursday.
Analysts will be watching to see if provisions for credit losses are stabilizing, and are hoping to see signs that profit margins are fatter thanks to higher prices on loans.
CIBC's large credit-card operations should benefit from lower provisions for losses, while the bank's high focus on consumer banking and lack of major U.S. banking operations should bode well for the bank for this quarter, UBS analyst Peter Rozenberg suggested in a note to clients.
"National Bank appears less well positioned due to higher business lending, trading, and lower credit leverage," he wrote.