(January 22 – 13:15 ET) – CIBC says that its application to incorporate a Schedule II bank was approved by the Minister of Finance on Dec. 22, 2000. Amicus Bank will be a subsidiary of CIBC.

According to CIBC, Amicus partners with leading companies to provide electronic financial services. Since its inception approximately three years ago, Amicus has attracted 456,000 new e-banking customers and is acquiring approximately 25,000 more each month, making it one of the largest Internet banks in North America.

Amicus aims to attract 750,000 customers by the end of fiscal 2001, with 100% of U.S. customers and 80% of Canadian customers being new to CIBC.

“By partnering with leading companies we can utilize their well- established and trusted brands and their strong customer relationships,” explains Brian Cassidy, chief executive officer of Amicus. “We can quickly and efficiently deliver high quality e-banking services to a broad base of new customers. Our strategy works. We avoid the high marketing costs of creating brand awareness and the high costs of building a branch network. We can pass the savings on to customers by offering no-fee banking and great rates on products such as savings accounts, GICs, loans and mortgages.”

Amicus’ first strategic alliance was in Canada with Loblaw Companies Limited to create President’s Choice Financial Services in February 1998. Recently, CIBC announced an alliance with Investors Group, Great-West Life and London Life to distribute a full range of financial products and services. It is intended that the Canadian alliances will be housed under the new Schedule II Amicus Bank.

Amicus operates in the Unites States — providing consumer banking services that offer great value and convenience — through alliances with Safeway Inc. (Safeway SELECT Bank) in the western U.S. and Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. (Marketplace Bank) in the southeastern U.S. In addition, Amicus has an alliance with Yahoo! Inc. to provide consumers Yahoo! PayDirect, an online person-to-person payment solution.
-IE Staff