CIBC launches tradable indices for currencies and interest rates.

Byline: [e-mail] (Staff Writer)

CIBC's wholesale banking business has launched a set of tradable indices that offer investors easier access to interest rate and currency futures contracts.

"Investors are paying very close attention to interest rates and currencies amid all the debate about what central banks may do in the year ahead," says Bill Bamber, Managing Director, Global Derivatives at CIBC World Markets Inc. "Our indices allow all investors to invest in these asset classes in ways that would otherwise be difficult to manage or impossible to do outside of a futures account."

CIBC's proprietary Interest Rate and Currency Indices (known collectively as the CIBC Financial Indices) are a series of independent standalone indices, each of which is linked to the performance of a specific futures contract that is listed and traded on major exchanges, namely the CBOT, CME, MSE and Eurex. Levels are posted on Bloomberg (CIBZ) and Reuters.

The indices benefit investors by eliminating the administrative burden of managing futures contracts. Also, they are open to all investors, many of whom have had no way to apply this type of interest rate and currency investment tool in their portfolios until now.

In addition, the indices allow investors to customise their exposure to specific interest rates and currencies, in Canadian dollars, US dollars and Euros.

CIBC is offering a range of products tied to the performance of the CIBC Financial Indices. Institutional products include over-the-counter derivatives, swaps and forwards. Other products for investors include principal at risk notes, and later this year, principal protected notes.

In June, the bank launched the CIBC Composite Commodities Index to give investors greater access to the resurgent commodities sector. An equities index is expected to follow later this year.

2009 CPI Financial. All rights reserved.

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