Nichola Saminather, and Sohini podder

TORONTO (Reuters). The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), comfortably beat analyst estimates on Friday for its quarterly earnings. Its adjusted profit rose by 14% compared with a year before, due to lower provisions for credit losses as well as higher revenue from all of its major divisions.

In the quarter ended January 31, net income after one-off items rose to C$4.08 per sen, up from C$3.58 in the same period a year ago. According to Refinitiv’s IBES data, analysts had predicted C$3.67 per share.

Canada’s No. The No.5 lender in Canada reported greater revenues year-on-year as well as quarter-on-quarter. Its Canadian Commercial and Wealth business saw strong results, highlighting the returns of those business borrowers that had been unable to repay during most of the pandemic.

CIBC is the second Canadian bank after Royal Bank of Canada that has posted a positive earnings shock in a quarter where analysts expected some challenges. These included higher expenses and a lower return from trading units, which was a result of a record-breaking quarter a decade ago.

Strong revenue growth was also seen in CIBC’s Capital Markets business, which saw an 11% increase over a year earlier and 29% more than the previous quarter due to improved corporate and trading performance.

Overall, higher volumes helped to mitigate a 10basis point decline in net margins in the bank’s personal and commercial banking division from one year prior and an 8basis point drop in U.S. Margins.

The increase in expenses was offset by 11% from a previous year, though they declined 4% from the quarter before, which saw a rise in costs that outpaced revenues growth.

CIBC’s overall net profit was C$1.87 billion or C$4.03 a Share, an increase of C$1.63 trillion or C$3.55 a Share.