Finance committee  Sorry, could you clarify that request?

Finance committee  My response would reflect that provided by Mr. Purre earlier.

Finance committee  There is nothing in the laws and in the jurisdictions in which CIBC operates that would inhibit us from reporting suspicious transactions, for example. I would make a point of clarification. The only limitation is in respect of the flow of information between jurisdictions. There are no limitations on what we can report in those jurisdictions.

Finance committee  I'm afraid I don't have the experience to respond to that question. I apologize.

Finance committee  I believe there would be a benefit to that. I'm not sure exactly what that would look like. I think it would need to be thought through in detail.

Finance committee  To the extent that we can, there are already mechanisms for sharing information among Canadian operations and subsidiaries in jurisdictions outside of Canada, albeit many of them are formal, based on the fact that we must comply with the respective privacy legislation and the respective other legislation that inhibits our ability to share.

Finance committee  First of all, there are global organizations that allow the sharing of information between regulatory bodies that are established. Canada sits on those organizations, so I believe that sharing is already under way. In addition to that, we spoke of TIEAs earlier, which I think is an appropriate answer.

Finance committee  As does CIBC.

Finance committee  Not that I'm aware of.

Finance committee  Can I ask for some clarification on the question? What would we be reporting with respect to the competition?

Finance committee  We comply with the regulatory requirements of the jurisdictions in which we operate and, as one of my colleagues mentioned earlier, we are subject to their privacy laws among other regulatory obstacles that will not allow the sharing of information. However, as I mentioned earlier, at CIBC we have a common denominator based on Canadian regulations that we apply across our operations, so if we are to identify any activity, we will report in those jurisdictions.

Finance committee  I have an additional comment. I completely agree with what my colleagues have said, but I think it goes even a step further. Many of the witnesses today come from the perspective of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing operations. Part of our mandate is to protect the integrity of the Canadian financial system, and that goes beyond maximizing shareholders' values, and that actually, if anything, could in many cases limit shareholders' values by rejecting the concept of taking on clients who propose undue risk.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Brison and Mr. Chair. The approach by CIBC is twofold in that regard. First of all, we will ask, to the extent that we are asking the initial question and the answer is positive, the purpose of the investment overseas, the account overseas, to better understand the nature of the client relationship and better position CIBC to monitor whether or not there's any unusual activity.

Finance committee  I think there are two answers to that question. Absolutely, the legal framework in the jurisdictions in which we operate internationally may be different from that in Canada and to the extent that they have different privacy standards from those that apply in Canada, there may not be a free flow of information between those jurisdictions and Canada.

Finance committee  The short answer is yes. We apply the same policies in the other jurisdictions in which we operate as we apply in Canada for client identification.