Toronto-based Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) is looking to grow its Imperial Service division with the recent launch of Imperial Service Direct.

The platform allows clients to access a dedicated financial advisor by telephone or email to discuss their banking, lending and investing needs, including financial planning. Imperial Service Direct is part of CIBC’s Imperial Service, which looks after clients with at least $100,000 in investible assets.

“Imperial Service Direct is a really forward-leaning way of bringing a sophisticated offering to a bigger group of clients,” says Lynne Kilpatrick, senior vice president, channel strategy and integration in Toronto.

Clients can contact the direct service seven days a week between 7 am and 10 pm. If a client’s dedicated financial advisor is not immediately available, he or she will be able to speak with a team member. Sixty financial advisors are currently available through the new platform, although CIBC plans to double that number by the end of 2016.

“What we’re finding clients value is the ability to pick up the phone [and] call that [advisor],” says Kilpatrick, “[to] have them problem solve or give them advice in the moment any time of day or night.”

Financial advisors in Imperial Services’ branch network needn’t worry about competing with the direct platform, though, Kilpatrick says, as the bank intends to expand both the direct and branch sides of its Imperial Service division. There are currently 800,000 bank clients who qualify for Imperial Service and CIBC will make the appropriate connection should any of those individuals prefer to work with an advisor face-to-face rather than the direct platform.

“There’s lots of great client opportunities to go around,” says Kilpatrick, “and there’s no fighting over clients because we want to get [clients] in the offer that works best for them.”

At the moment, the new platform is focused on providing flexibility in communicating with an advisor rather than digital advice, says Kilpatrick. However, CIBC will be exploring more virtual-based forms of communication in the coming months.

For example, the bank will soon run video-conferencing and co-browsing pilot projects. Co-browsing is a service whereby an advisor and client can view the same computer screen from different location, thereby allowing both individuals to review and amend a document, such as a financial plan, in real time.

“We’ll continue to innovate,” says Kilpatrick, “but in all the research that we’ve done, what clients have valued the most is the convenience of their dedicated advisor who’s available when they need them.”