DBRS has today placed all ratings of CIBC under review for a possible downgrade due to the bank’s exposure to the credit market disruption.

“This rating action is a result of concentration risk to some hedge counterparties that have and continue to experience credit weakness,” the rating agency said.

DBRS suggests that the review is due to: a higher than expected concentration risk of counterparty exposure, which does not reflect positively on the overall risk management ability of the bank; the long-term viability of some of CIBC’s other hedge counterparties will remain uncertain; and, the reputation damage could have negative implications on CIBC’s business activities.

Earlier today, following Standard and Poor’s announcement that it had reduced the credit rating of ACA Financial Guaranty Corp. from “A” to “CCC”, CIBC confirmed that ACA is a hedge counterparty to CIBC in respect of approximately US$3.5 billion of its U.S. subprime real estate exposure.

It is not known whether ACA will continue as a viable counterparty to CIBC. Although CIBC believes it is premature to predict the outcome, CIBC believes there is a reasonably high probability that it will incur a large charge in its financial results for the First quarter ending January 31, 2008, according to a release.

“With the meaningful downgrade action today of ACA Financial Guarantee Corporation, CIBC would be expected to take a pre-tax charge in Q1 2008. As of November 30, 2007 the mark was US$2 billion,” DBRS notes. If the charge were to be US$2 billion (US$1.3 billion after tax), CIBC expects its Tier 1 capital ratio will remain above 9% at the end of the first quarter of 2008, it adds.

“Despite these issues, CIBC’s base Canadian retail banking and brokerage franchises remain sound and are expected to contribute to earnings stability in the future,” the rating agency adds.