Simplii Financial


Simplii Financial is the direct banking brand of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. It was founded in 2017 following CIBC and the supermarket chain Loblaw Companies mutually deciding to end their 20-year joint venture of providing consumer banking services under the President's Choice Financial brand. Instead of having its own Institution Number, Simplii Financial shares Institution Number 010 with its parent CIBC. Its SWIFT code is CIBCCATT. And all Simplii clients share a branch-transit number of 30800.

History

Simplii traces its history to the 1996 President's Choice Financial co-venture between CIBC and Loblaws to provide low-fee banking services. President's Choice Financial operated out of pavilions in various Loblaw-owned supermarkets but had no formal branches, instead CIBC and PCF customers could use either brands' bank machines for no charge. In August 2017 the two co-venture partners decided to end the relationship.
Effective November 1, 2017 all 2 million President's Choice Financial bank accounts – as well as loans, mortgages, and investments – were transferred to Simplii, with Loblaws retaining their credit card portfolio issued by the separately chartered President's Choice Bank.. Because CIBC was already the account provider for PCF bank accounts and other consumer products, all account numbers and terms remained the same.
The first day of operations for the Simplii brand saw glitches in the mobile banking app, long call centre wait times, and customers reporting confusion about when to expect their new debit cards. Simplii and the Bank of Montreal were the targets of hackers in May 2018, who claimed to have compromised the systems of both banks and stolen information on a combined 90,000 customers. An email sent from a Russian address and attributed to the hackers demanded a ransom of 1 million paid via Ripple by 11:59 pm on May 28, 2018 or the information would be released on "fraud forum and fraud community."
Simplii Financial was named in Forbes magazine's World's Best Banks 2019 list, which also ranked it the third best bank in Canada.

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