CIBC completes €1.25B negative-yield covered bond offering – a first for any Canadian covered bond issuer

On July 25, 2016, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) completed its first offering of negative yield Euro denominated covered bonds. CIBC Issued an aggregate amount of €1,250,000,000 Series CBL12 0.00% Covered Bonds due July 25, 2022. This offering was made under CIBC’s C$20 billion Global Covered Bond Programme registered under the Canadian legal framework for covered bonds. This was only the second negative yielding euro benchmark covered bond and the first by a non-European bank.

McCarthy Tétrault LLP (Toronto and London, UK) acted as external counsel to CIBC, the issuer, with a team consisting of Marc MacMullin, Candace Pallone, Tina Benson, Blake Jones and Suraj Rammohan. CIBC was also represented internally by Frank Vivacqua, Vice President & Associate General Counsel and Andrew Bozzato, Counsel.