Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

Merger of Imperial and Commerce

The origins of the Imperial–Commerce merger lay in the actions of Barclays Bank. Barclays began operating in Canada in 1929, but in 1956 sold its Canadian operations to the Imperial Bank. Barclays took payment partly in the form of Imperial stock. In 1960, without informing Imperial's board, Barclays began buying additional Imperial stock on the open market. L. Stuart Mackersy, chairman of Imperial, believed Barclays was making a play to take over Imperial. Mackersy thought that a takeover of a small bank such as Imperial was inevitable, but preferred to work with domestic rather than British concerns. In October 1960, Mackersy approached Neil J. McKinnon, the president and chairman of the Commerce, with a proposal to merge the two banks. Their first meeting took place secretively at McKinnon's house at 116 Dunvegan Road in Forest Hill, making the house the birthplace of the CIBC. According to Mackersy, within ten minutes he and McKinnon reached an agreement to merge their banks.

Operations of CIBC

On 1 June 1961, the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Imperial Bank of Canada merged to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce with over 1,200 branches across Canada. The new bank possessed the greatest resources and the most branches of any bank in the country.

In 1964, the bank operated a floating branch using the passenger vessel MV Jean Brilliant along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, billed as the only floating branch in Canada for 5000 customers. In 1967, both Canada and CIBC celebrated their centenaries and CIBC was the only chartered bank to have a branch on-site at Expo 67. Also at this time computerization began to change banking services and the Yonge and Bloor branch in Toronto was the first Canadian bank branch to update customer bank books via computer. This also marked the introduction of inter-branch banking. Before the decade was out, CIBC had introduced the first 24-hour cash dispenser, which would eventually become the ATM.

Following the merger, the new bank commissioned a new head office. While planning to retain Commerce Court North, the bank hired architect I. M. Pei to design a three-building complex. The result was Commerce Court consisting of a landscaped courtyard complementing the existing building and included the newly built 786 ft (240 m) Commerce Court West. When completed in 1973, the 57-storey building was the tallest in Canada, and the largest stainless-steel-clad building in the world.