Its plans to pull out of the United States have not stopped Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from expanding its insurance operation at home, despite more restrictive regulations in that market than those farther south.
The Toronto banking company said on Tuesday that it is adding an online comparison shopping service for critical illness insurance and term life insurance for its Canadian customers.
Lawrie McGill, the vice president of strategic initiatives at CIBC Insurance, said the critical illness product is popular in Canada.
Critical illness insurance pays a lump sum benefit to policyholders who survive an illness such as cancer, heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer's, or blindness. Unlike life insurance, the policy pays benefits to a living policyholder.
Mr. McGill said this product complements disability insurance and is useful to customers who either do not have payroll jobs, like homemakers, or who prefer a lump sum payment in case of a catastrophic illness.
Rick Lancaster, a senior vice president at CIBC Insurance, said in a press statement: "People know that the costs of recovery from a serious illness can have a dramatic impact on their families' financial security and lifestyle. Critical illness insurance is designed to ensure they have the financial resources they need to focus on getting better without the worry of depleting their savings or getting into debt."
The CIBC Web site now lets people get quotes in its Insurance Marketplace from up to six providers of the product.
In addition, people can get life insurance quotes at the site for 10- and 20-year term policies.
The Insurance Marketplace is powered by Kanetix, an online insurance agency in Toronto.
Mr. McGill said CIBC offers a variety of insurance products through its branches, online, and over the phone - mainly creditor-based products such as mortgage insurance and credit insurance.
Credit products are extremely popular, he said; about 80% of CIBC's personal borrowers also take on some sort of debt protection insurance.
He stressed that the company's debt protection products are "pay as you go," as opposed to the single-premium products once popular in the United States but now judged by some to be predatory and unfair to consumers.
CIBC said it is expanding its online offerings because Canada has fewer regulatory restrictions on online sales than it does on in-branch insurance pitches.
Only a few products, such as credit insurance and travel insurance, can be offered in bank branches in Canada, Mr. McGill said. Beyond that, banks are not allowed to have agents in their branches, he said, and they cannot use their databases to segment customers into target groups of insurance prospects.
Comparatively, he said, "on the Net we're not restricted in any way."
Canadians "have embraced electronic transactions," Mr. McGill said, and have been very open to using the Web to buy insurance. "The next products we'll bring to that shopping mall are home and auto," he said, and he forecast launching dates in the summer.
Last fall, CIBC began divesting its U.S. retail banking operations, shedding units and also laying off workers in investment banking, systems development, and operations.
