CIBC Caribbean Bank Ltd (CIBC) continued to prune its regional operations to concentrate on the most profitable jurisdictions for growth. During 2025, it experienced significant negative incidents in Trinidad and Cayman. Today, we will review the performance of CIBC for the year ended October 31, 2025. All currency references in this article are to US dollars, unless specifically indicated.
Assets Increase
Total assets grew by 3.9 per cent from $13.31 billion to $13.83 billion (TT$93.36 billion).
Loans expanded from $6.96 billion to $7.44 billion. Residential mortgages increased from $2.13 billion to $2.19 billion, while personal loans, including credit cards, climbed from $728 million to $806 million, and business and sovereign advances rose from $4.1 billion to $4.44 billion. Overall, loans in Barbados dollars climbed from $856 million to $1.05 billion, while US dollar loans crept up from $2.89 billion to $2.93 billion, and Bahamian dollar advances widened from $1.38 billion to $1.44 billion.
Securities increased from $3.17 billion to $3.41 billion. Securities measured at fair value through other comprehensive income (FVOCI) grew from $2.66 billion to $2.78 billion; here, corporate debt securities dropped from $787 million to $585 million. Conversely, regional and non-regional government securities advanced from $1.88 billion to $2.19 billion.
Further, investments at amortised cost rose from $491 million to $543 million. Within this grouping, corporate debt surged from $22 million to $85 million, while government debt fell from $469 million to $457 million. Lastly, securities at fair value through profit or loss (FVTPL) swelled from $2.1 million to $75.6 million. In total, investments denominated in US dollars increased from $2.21 billion to $2.41 billion, while holdings in Bahamian dollars grew from $353 million to $430 million. However, Barbados dollar securities fell from $553 million to $533 million.
Other assets declined from $153 million to $131 million; here, other accounts receivable dropped from $130 million to $97 million, while prepayments and deferred items jumped from $23 million to $34 million.
The defined benefit asset improved from $150 million to $176 million. The fair value of the pension plan’s assets grew from $509 million to $544 million, while the present value of the defined benefit obligation widened from $359 million to $368 million.
The assets of its discontinued operations dropped from $156.4 million to zero, while the applicable liabilities decreased from $121.9 million to zero. These items represented CIBC’s previous operations in St Maarten, Curaçao and Dominica, which were sold for a net gain of $9.9 million.
Amounts due from banks declined from $911 million to $781 million.
Conversely, cash and balances with central banks crept up from $1.5 billion to $1.58 billion. Of the latter, non-interest-bearing balances with central banks widened from $1.24 billion to $1.29 billion.
Liabilities Climb
Total liabilities advanced by 3.5 per cent from $11.7 billion to $12.1 billion.
Customers’ deposits grew from $11.3 billion to $11.8 billion. Deposits from individuals edged up from $3.9 billion to $4.1 billion, while funds from business and sovereign entities expanded from $7.2 billion to $7.6 billion. However, sums from banks fell from $141 million to $112 million. Overall, deposits in US dollars were stable at $5.3 billion, while Bahamian dollar deposits climbed from $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion, and Barbados dollar funds edged up from $1.84 billion to $1.87 billion.
Other liabilities slipped from $224.6 million to $223.1 million. Accounts payable and accruals rose from $195 million to $201 million. However, lease liabilities fell from $24 million to $21.4 million.
Notably, restructuring costs dropped from $5.3 million to zero.
Retirement benefit obligations, which reflected post-retirement medical benefits, decreased from $18.7 million to $17.7 million.
Equity Grows
Total equity advanced from $13.3 billion to $13.8 billion. After removing the non-controlling interest in its Bahamian subsidiary, shareholders’ equity expanded from $1.59 billion to $1.70 billion.
The retained earnings account improved from $432.2 million to $476.5 million. Here, the current year’s profit of $154.4 million strengthened the brought-forward balance. Next, the transfer to reserves of $31.2 million and dividends of $79 million lowered the closing value.
The above transfer of $31.2 million from retained earnings boosted the reserve account, while other comprehensive income of $31.6 million further lifted this balance. The latter reflected net remeasurement gains on the pension plans ($24.8 million) and gains on FVOCI debt securities ($10.2 million). However, exchange losses on translating foreign operations of $3.1 million reduced those gains.
Consequently, this account swung from negative $31.6 million to positive $31.2 million.
The issued capital was unchanged at $1.193 billion. Further, the year-end number of shares outstanding was stable at 1,577,094,570; consequently, the book value per share increased from $1.01 to $1.08 (TT$7.29).
Revenue and Profit
Net interest income slipped from $541 million to $539.7 million. The interest income element grew from $621 million to $638.5 million. Here, interest on loans advanced from $448 million to $469.4 million, while interest on securities improved from $136.8 million to $143 million. However, interest on other bank balances dropped from $36.3 million to $26.1 million.
The interest expense component grew from $80.2 million to $98.8 million. Influenced by more competitive market conditions, interest on customer deposits improved from $79.1 million to $98.2 million, while interest on debt securities in issue fell from $1.07 million to zero.
Other operating income decreased from $205.6 million to $168.4 million. The leading components were net fee and underwriting income and foreign exchange commissions; the former advanced from $125.7 million to $137.3 million, while the latter rose from $77.1 million to $82.4 million.
Fee and commission income mainly comprised deposit services ($59.6 million), card services ($37.6 million) and fiduciary and investment management fees ($20.4 million). Those positives were negatively impacted by a fair value loss of $56.2 million on a non-core FVTPL security in the Cayman. Therefore, net operating income fell from $746.6 million to $708.1 million.
Total operating and credit loss expenses increased from $444.3 million to $515.3 million. The operating expense element climbed from $441.6 million to $467.6 million. Here, despite a marginal fall in full-time employees, staff costs moved from $200.3 million to $205.7 million, while other operating expenses advanced from $152.4 million to $162 million. The main components of the latter were business taxes of $46.7 million, professional fees of $29.3 million and $11 million applicable to communications.
Further, property and equipment expenses increased from $53.5 million to $61.6 million, and depreciation moved from $35.5 million to $38.3 million.
Next, the credit loss expense on financial assets (loans and investments) swelled from $2.7 million to $47.7 million. The latter included a fraud incident in Trinidad (see later) and a large credit loss in Cayman. These movements saw pre-tax income from continuing operations decrease from $302.3 million to $192.8 million.
The Barbados statutory tax rate rose from 5.5 to 9 per cent, while the effective tax rate climbed from 8.8 to 18.65 per cent, and the tax liability increased from $26.6 million to $35.95 million. Adversely impacting the current rate was the global minimum tax of $10.98 million (this calculation is based on a minimum tax rate of 15 per cent). Therefore, net income from continuing operations fell from $275.7 million to $156.9 million.
The net profit from discontinued operations improved from $1.8 million to $2.85 million; consequently, net income from all sources settled at $159.7 million from $277.5 million. After removing the profit owed to non-controlling interests, net profit attributable to shareholders ended at $154.4 million from $271 million. These results reveal current EPS of 9.8 cents (TT$0.66) versus 17.2 cents.
Segment Contributions
The PBB segment saw revenue increase by 6.9 per cent, while pre-tax profit expanded by 119 per cent. This grouping includes retail and business banking and card issuing businesses. Revenue growth was driven by loan interest, foreign exchange and wire fee income. Lower operating and indirect expenses contributed to a robust profit improvement.
The CB segment experienced a revenue decline of 1 per cent, while pre-tax profit receded by 31 per cent. This segment includes corporate and international corporate banking, investment banking, forex and derivative sales, and merchant banking services. Lower earnings from net funds transfer pricing restricted top-line growth. Further, higher credit loss releases and larger indirect expenses restricted profit growth.
Under the WM segment, revenues deteriorated by $56 million and profit weakened by $57 million. Both the top and bottom lines were adversely impacted by non-core fair value losses (see above).
Geographically and before eliminations, the three largest jurisdictions as measured by assets are Barbados ($3.64 billion), Bahamas ($3.59 billion) and Cayman ($2.91 billion). When measured by drawn loans, Bahamas accounts for $2.04 billion, while Cayman represents $1.88 billion and Barbados registers at $1.19 billion.
Loans and assets in Trinidad were $434 million and $670.6 million, respectively. Further, the Trinidad subsidiary posted a 2025 net loss of TT$36.35 million (2024: loss of TT$5.38 million). The current period’s loss was heavily and adversely impacted by TT$54.32 million in fraudulent wire transfer incidents.
Shareholders’ Returns (TT Dollars)
Over its fiscal year, CIBC’s share price on the TTSE increased by 20.1 per cent from TT$7.05 to TT$8.47 as of October 31, 2025. This year, the price settled at TT$8.29 on April 2. Despite lower profit, annual dividends remained at 34 cents TT (US$0.05).
The recent price of TT$8.29 gives investors a yield of 4.10 per cent and reveals a premium of TT$1.00 or 13.7 per cent to its October 31, 2025, book value of TT$7.29. Further, that price reflects a moderate P/E multiple of 12.56.
I am temporarily pausing my weekly articles; this is because I am having cataract surgeries in April. Hopefully, I will resume writing during May 2026.
