Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) at Bay and King Streets in the Financial District in Toronto.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Here's the most telling statistic for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce managers as they assume new roles in Monday's big executive suite changes: CIBC trades at a discount to each and every one of the other big five banks in Canada.
What's more, against three of those banks, the discount is wider now than the historical average. The bank isn't getting any respect for all its accomplishments in the past few years.
In other words, for all the work that CIBC has done to dampen risk, investors are still gun shy. It's now likely that they are just as scared of a lack of growth opportunities as they are of a big blowup.
Just how big is the discount?
Analysts at National Bank Financial calculated the numbers in a report Monday morning. They looked at the price-earnings multiple variations among the big banks.
Against Bank of Nova Scotia, the current discount is 14.2 per cent compared with a historical average of 5.7 per cent.
Against Royal Bank of Canada -- current discount 11.5 per cent, historical discount 9.4 per cent
Against Toronto-Dominion Bank -- current discount 9.5 per cent, historical 6 per cent
Against Bank of Montreal -- current discount 3.3 per cent, historical average 5.4 per cent.