Indices accompanied by new products for retail and institutional
    investors, simplifying access to futures contractsTORONTO, July 27 /CNW/ - CIBC (CM: TSX; NYSE) - CIBC's wholesale banking
business has launched a set of tradable indices that offer investors easier
access to interest rate and currency futures contracts.
    "Investors are paying very close attention to interest rates and
currencies amid all the debate about what central banks may do in the year
ahead," says Bill Bamber, Managing Director, Global Derivatives at CIBC World
Markets Inc. "Our indices allow all investors to invest in these asset classes
in ways that would otherwise be difficult to manage or impossible to do
outside of a futures account."
    CIBC's proprietary Interest Rate and Currency Indices (known collectively
as the CIBC Financial Indices) are a series of independent standalone indices,
each of which is linked to the performance of a specific futures contract that
is listed and traded on major exchanges, namely the CBOT, CME, MSE and Eurex.
Levels are posted on Bloomberg (CIBZ) and Reuters.
    The indices benefit investors by eliminating the administrative burden of
managing futures contracts. Also, they are open to all investors, many of whom
have had no way to apply this type of interest rate and currency investment
tool in their portfolios until now.
    In addition, the indices allow investors to customize their exposure to
specific interest rates and currencies, in Canadian dollars, U.S. dollars and
Euros.
    CIBC is offering a range of products tied to the performance of the CIBC
Financial Indices. Institutional products include over-the-counter
derivatives, swaps and forwards. Other products for investors include
principal at risk notes, and later this year, principal protected notes.
    The CIBC Financial Indices are the latest in a series of proprietary
indices that CIBC is launching as it broadens product offerings to meet
investor demand. In June, the bank launched the CIBC Composite Commodities
Index to give investors greater access to the resurgent commodities sector. An
equities index is expected to follow later this year.
    CIBC is a leading Canadian full service investment dealer with fixed
income and currencies professionals based in Toronto, New York, London,
Singapore, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary.

    CIBC's wholesale banking business provides a wide range of credit,
capital markets, investment banking, merchant banking and research products
and services to government, institutional, corporate and retail clients in
Canada and in key markets around the world. All of these activities support
our objective of being the premier client-focused wholesale bank based in
Canada.