I am not an expert in the banking industry. That title belongs to a different John Sherrington. But, as a corporate customer of CIBC I find myself frequently cringing over what seems to be a litany of woes that stretch back as far as I have been their customer (12 years). It is only by speculation that I am drawing these conclusions. But speculation is what modern banking is all about.

I speculate that the driving mission of CIBC has been, and continues to be, to topple RBC from its perch. Ergo, every speculative short cut to increase its size has this in mind. In hindsight, due to some impossible-to-foresee, terribly tough luck, many of its get-rich-quicker strategies have backfired and caused it to backslide into a worse position than before.

These get-rich-quicker strategies included:
> a miserable foray into the US market
> backing Enron up to the hilt,
> market timing its stock trades (duly settled without admission of guilt),
> investing too deeply in structured products (e.g. sub-prime mortgage market),
> minimising overtime payments to its branch staff (now facing largest Canadian class-action lawsuit for said miscarriage of employment contract),
>losing 470,000 customer records through sloppy data management.

Every few months it seems CIBC is in the news for having done something stupid.

CIBC is not stupid. But my intuition is telling me that I have been a customer for 12 years and have seen no advancement in customer focus (not that I am not thankful for all the fees they let me pay them). Instead I have seen investment risk in areas that came back to bite them.

So what, I ask myself, is the problem with competition in the banking sector in Canada? The problem, based on my conjecture, is that competition is about how tip-top bank execs stare each other down across the glass partitions of Bay St. Not based on how to extract the best customer value or to grow the core business. Too little competition breeds poor customer-facing initiatives. Big investment risk has the potential for big pay-off. Guess it right and be covered in glory. Guess it wrong and it looks gory.

When the business of banking is just the business of money, the win/lose mentality is all part of a game. When the business of banking is the business of serving customers, investors and shareholders then fees drop, risk is better managed and ethics are put on top of the flagpole. CIBC is starting to resemble a gambling addict, always looking for that one roll of the dice that will put it back in front.

There have been worse acts committed by financial institutions. CIBC really is above my reproach. It's just that the aching corn on my left toe is telling me that CIBC is in pursuit of a dream that I, its customer, care diddly-squat about.