It is one of the oldest banks in North America - and as such, has seen many trends come and go.

Canada's CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) has been around for as long as the nation itself - its precursor, The Canadian Bank of Commerce, was formed in 1867, the year the country was born. (In 1961, the CBC was merged with the Imperial Bank of Canada, changing its name to CIBC.)

Through the decades, CIBC has enjoyed impressive growth, and led the banking industry into many new areas - among other achievements, it was the first Canadian bank to deploy ATMs.

In 1999, it took another step to broaden its customer front-line. Through partnerships with Winn-Dixie and Safeway, CIBC opened branch-like "pavilions" in hundreds of grocery stores throughout Canada and the United States, using the names "Marketplace Bank" and "Safeway SELECT Bank," respectively.

Marketplace Bank and Safeway SELECT Bank are operated by Amicus Financial, a division of CIBC that handles strategic alliances for e-commerce initiatives, according to CIBC spokesperson Susan McDougall. The Marketplace partnership began in October of 1999, and the Safeway deal was struck a year later, in October of 2000.

"We think e-commerce is a strong growth area for the bank," McDougall says. "And we think partnering with well-known retailers with strong brands, such as grocery stores, and providing a combination of clicks and bricks - both an Internet bank and a physical presence - is the right strategy for growing our Internet bank."

A New Approach to "Self-Serve"

While the concept of placing a bank branch inside a grocery store is not entirely new, CIBC's hybrid approach might be. The "pavilions" are heavily oriented toward self-service - there are no tellers to take deposits, but one or two customer service employees are on hand to help customers open new accounts, examine banking products, or find their way around. Many transactions take place at an ATM; a networked PC workstation is also provided for customers to access online banking accounts. A telephone is provided so the customer can get in touch with the call center.

"The concept is that first and foremost, it's an Internet bank. What we're offering is no fee banking, and high interest rates on savings and low rates on lending products," McDougall says. "But we feel that Internet banks that are standalone, that's not the route to go - you do need a physical presence, you do need a place to sign up."

McDougall says customers can open new accounts within 20 minutes on their first visit to the store. Customers receive a card on the spot, which can be used immediately at the grocery's checkout counter.

"A Name You Can Trust"

One of the major hurdles online banks have faced is that of trust: getting customers to feel comfortable depositing funds in a bank with no physical location.

CIBC's partnerships with Safeway and Winn-Dixie circumvent this hurdle in two ways: first, they provide a physical venue for customer interaction with the bank, and second, the name on that bank is one that the customer already trusts.

"That's the key to this type of alliance - you're working on the branding that is well known in that area," says McDougall. "So Safeway, for instance, they have this wonderful brand for their line of premium groceries, Safeway SELECT. And people trust that brand, and so they're willing to bank with that brand."

By creatively combining the best, most cost-effective elements of a conventional bank branch and a self-serve, kiosk-like arrangement, CIBC is making new in-roads into the consumer banking market, while leveraging the strong reputations of these high-profile retail chains. The word "partnership" implies that each party is benefiting from the presence of the other, and that certainly seems to be the case here: the grocery stores realize higher sales thanks to the consumer's increased access to funds, and the bank gains a new foothold and some new foot traffic.

"This is the beauty of our strategy: we don't have to expend the enormous expense it takes to build a branch network," McDougall says. "And we can also utilize the well-known and trusted brand of our partner, so we don't have to have an enormous marketing campaign to build an unknown brand."