CIBC GAM builds its institutional edge on connectivity
At CIBC Global Asset Management™ (CIBC GAM), several senior leaders emphasize that the firm’s competitive edge lies not in any single fund or strategy but in the connective tissue that links every part of their organization − investment teams, capital markets, corporate bankers, and more − to drive operational excellence under one enterprise mindset.
Julia Moynihan, Managing Director and Head, Institutional Distribution and Connectivity at CIBC GAM, notes that institutional clients aren’t looking for a single pre-packaged product; they need a partner who understands financing, capital, governance, and risk as interconnected parts of a larger puzzle.
“It’s about the whole ecosystem. It’s financing. It’s capital. It’s knowing the governance and the risk piece,” says Moynihan. “We can bring the whole bank to the problems that exist. It’s not only about a single product; it’s not about something that’s off the shelf. It really is being that solution provider.”
Meric Koksal, Executive Vice-President and Head, underscores that the firm’s product development work illustrates how connectivity translates into a unique solution for clients. As an example, CIBC GAM’s private credit offering draws on origination from commercial banking in Canada and the US; leverage from capital markets; and risk oversight from commercial banking, asset management, and firm-wide risk management − a structure she describes as a “triple-layer risk check.”
“This is not a risk transfer per se. The bank still owns the loan. It has gone through the risk management and approval process within commercial banking. It has gone through the asset management due diligence, as well as the firm’s overall risk management,” she explains. “The product that we envisioned would not be possible in a firm this size without that level of connectivity.”
According to Moynihan, the work of assembling the right internal expertise happens seamlessly, without the client feeling any impact. Moynihan connects CIBC GAM colleagues with trading desks, credit groups, and fund finance teams so they arrive at client meetings with sharper context − an understanding of how other institutional investors are approaching similar challenges and where CIBC GAM can offer something different.
Koksal believes serving sophisticated institutional clients forces a higher operational standard across the entire firm, one that ultimately benefits wealth and retail clients as well. The due diligence process institutional investors demand is granular and unforgiving, and meeting it consistently keeps the organization sharp.
“Our approach to investment management really is not force-fitting solutions. Our approach is to embrace our clients’ challenges, what they’re bringing to us, and then trying to design solutions that address those,” he says. “It starts with having the right set of capabilities.”
The platform behind that approach has expanded considerably, Wong notes, as traditional equity and fixed income capabilities now sit alongside private credit − brought into CIBC GAM in 2025. The firm’s Total Investment Solutions team is well positioned to compete for outsourced CIO mandates with the scale and breadth of a full-service money manager that also has external manager partnerships to drive desired outcomes, performance, and value in a total portfolio. Quantitative strategies developed over the past decade can generate returns in a market where index concentration has made excess performance harder to capture.
Wong also flags the forward-looking case for non-directional strategies, arguing that after 15 years of above-average equity returns, mean reversion makes market-beta-independent approaches essential for the next decade. Delivering on any of it, though, requires more than investment skill.
“It’s more than the investment capability; it’s the whole solutioning set that we have, which touches on many different teams − not just the investment team but the product team, the operations team,” he says.
A large defined benefit pension plan’s move to CIBC GAM earlier this year added another layer of solutioning complexity. Wong underscored that the pension plan gains immediate advantages in fee negotiation, operational infrastructure, and reporting − efficiencies that would have been harder to achieve in isolation.
“All of the operational arrangements, reporting, can be scaled up under that $431 billion* asset manager,” Wong says, adding that the integration also strengthens CIBC GAM’s Total Investment Solutions team, which already manages assets and acts as an asset owner on a pool well north of $100 billion.
Wong also points to quantitative portfolio construction as one area where internal collaboration has produced measurable results. He notes the firm spent the better part of a decade developing quant capabilities that sit alongside fundamental research, not to replace conviction-based stock picking but to expose risks portfolio managers may not see.
“In the earliest versions of this, almost a decade ago, there was a little bit of surprise around just how much of the portfolio wasn’t idiosyncratic stock-picking risk, but how much was embedded in factor exposure that wasn’t necessarily intended,” he says.
Wong believes the payoff has been tangible in a period where concentrated equity markets have punished managers with unintended factor tilts.
“We haven’t faced some of those same challenges despite having a lot of the same active management precepts around quality stocks, for example,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Eric Belanger, group head at CIBC Wealth Management, suggests the needs of Canadian institutional investors have always carried complexity, but the current environment has raised the bar across public and private markets, portfolio implementation, liquidity management, and risk oversight.
Rather than waiting for those demands to arrive, CIBC GAM has focused on strengthening internal connections between investment teams so client objectives can be assessed collectively.
Spotlight
The immediate priority is building out the infrastructure to support nonlinear strategies. Enhanced execution ability − including leverage, derivatives, over-the-counter trading, and short selling, to name just a few − moves the firm well beyond buying and selling listed securities into a more complex execution environment where best execution still holds.
“We’re broadening our counterparty reach. We’re consistently expanding our toolbox, which will allow us to execute innovative products for the right to win the business,” says Koksal.
David Wong, group chief investment officer and managing director at CIBC GAM, agrees that connectivity without investment substance is hollow, particularly as his investment philosophy starts with the client’s need and not only CIBC GAM’s product shelf.
CIBC Global Asset ManagementTM (CIBC GAM), the asset management subsidiary of CIBC, is one of Canada’s largest asset managers. Established in 1972, CIBC GAM offers a broad range of investment solutions, including mutual funds, ETFs, portfolio solutions, alternative investments, discretionary investment management services for high-net-worth individuals, and institutional portfolio management. With teams across Canada and the US, CIBC GAM serves retail, high-net-worth and institutional clients in North America, and institutional clients worldwide. As of June 30, 2026, CIBC GAM managed $431 billion in assets under management. For more information, visit cibc.com/gam or follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube.
Company Profile
50+
years experience in active management
1867
CIBC’s history begins
$431bn
assets under management
Top 10
Rank as manager of Canadian pension assets
240+
investment professionals
Bio
Spotlight
Milestones
Media
Accolades
Company Profile
“We can bring the whole bank to the problems that exist. It’s not only about a single product; it’s not about something that’s off the shelf. It really is being that solution provider”
Julia Moynihan, CIBC GAM
“We’re broadening our counterparty reach. We’re consistently expanding our toolbox, which will allow us to execute innovative products for the right to win the business”
MeriC Koksal, CIBC GAM
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Published Oct 19 2026
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David Wong
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How CIBC GAM puts institutional clients first through connectivity to drive innovative solutions and investment discipline
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
David Wong
Group chief investment officer, managing director and head, Total Investment Solutions
CIBC Global Asset Management
COMPANY
CIBC Global Asset Management Team
“Our approach to investment management really is not force-fitting solutions. Our approach is to embrace our clients’ challenges, what they’re bringing to us, and then trying to design solutions that address those"
David Wong, CIBC GAM
*As of June 30, 2026, CIBC GAM managed C$431 billion in assets under management.
CIBC Global Asset ManagementTM
27+
YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY
“We preserve what has earned our clients’ trust over decades: investment discipline, fiduciary responsibility, operational excellence, and a long-term commitment to partnership”
Eric Belanger, CIBC GAM
Meric Koksal
1867
1972
1994
2001
2024
2026
CIBC’s history begins with the founding of The Canadian Bank of Commerce.
1867
CIBC Global Asset Management founded as Timmins & Associates Limited in Montreal, Quebec (later named TAL Investment Counsel Ltd.).
1972
CIBC takes ownership stake in TAL Investment Counsel Ltd. (later named TAL Global Investment Management Inc.), with offices in Toronto and Montreal.
1994
CIBC acquires 100% ownership in TAL Global Asset Management Inc.
2001
Eric Belanger assumes leadership of the firm.
2024
Firm officially transitions to CIBC Global Asset Management, with 10 North American offices.
2026
Milestones
Eric Belanger
Senior executive vice president and group head
CIBC Wealth Management
COMPANY
30+
YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY
Julia Moynihan
Managing Director and Head, Institutional Distribution and Connectivity
CIBC Global Asset Management
COMPANY
30+
YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY
20+
YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY
CIBC Global Asset Management
COMPANY
Meric Koksal
Executive Vice-President and Head
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The views expressed in this material are the views of CIBC Global Asset Management, as of September 16, 2026, unless otherwise indicated, and are subject to change at any time. ®/™The CIBC logo and “CIBC Global Asset Management” are trademarks of CIBC, used under license. CIBC Global Asset Management is a brand name under which CIBC Global Asset Management Inc. Operates.
“That positions us to be more proactive: building the right products, capabilities, and operating discipline our clients need to navigate different market environments and not simply responding to them,” he says.
In practice, a globally connected platform means research and investment perspectives flow across teams and geographies – not to override local expertise but to reinforce it with broader scale. Yet CIBC GAM emphasizes that forward-looking posture doesn’t mean discarding what has worked.
“We preserve what has earned our clients’ trust over decades: investment discipline, fiduciary responsibility, operational excellence, and a long-term commitment to partnership,” says Belanger. “What evolves is how we bridge those strengths together and deliver them − through our structure, technology, processes, and connectivity.”
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(as at June 30, 2026)