(Reuters) - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TO:CM) will lay off employees in the months ahead to cut costs, a memo obtained by Reuters showed.
Chief executive Victor Dodig of Canada's fifth-largest bank told staff on Thursday that CIBC needs to continue to be "a more efficient bank by focusing on continuous improvement and keeping a careful eye on costs."
"As a result, some team members will be leaving our bank in the coming months."
The move is expected to lower the bank's non-interest expense ratio, which measures such expenses as a percentage of revenue.
Other Canadian lenders have also been taking on restructuring charges as they turn to controlling costs to drive earnings growth in what is expected to be a tough year.
During their fourth quarter results, Canada's fourth-largest lender, Bank of Montreal, took a restructuring charge of C$357 million ($268.40 million), which also included some real-estate costs.
The bank cut about 810 jobs, and is targeting a total reduction of 5%, or about 2,300 employees.