Toronto-based Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce recommends shareholders vote against two proposals submitted by activist investor Le MÉDAC at its April 4 annual shareholder meeting.

The first proposal asks the company to disclose the equity ratio used by its compensation committee when determining its CEO's pay, as compared to the pay of employees.

CIBC argues that its current methodology of comparing its CEO remuneration to recent wage data in the industry has helped it improve the competitiveness of its base salaries, and that because the bank considers a host of factors when determining remuneration, disclosure of the pay equity ratio would not be particularly helpful to shareholders.

The second proposal involves the creation of a new technologies committee to anticipate the challenges of integrating technological innovations into the activities of the bank.

CIBC says that technological integration should be addressed by the entire board of directors and across every board committee, instead of restricted to a single committee.

The investor initially submitted five proposals, but agreed to withdraw three of them. The withdrawn proposals involved environmental issues and dissatisfaction with a director's recurring abstention votes.