The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and Barclays Bank PLC have signed an agreement to combine their retail, corporate and offshore banking operations in the Caribbean to create FirstCaribbean International Bank. In principle, it appeared that both parties were agreeing to a combination of their assets to form a new entity, in which case a new holding company could be constituted to absorb the assets being merged. Alternately, as Barclays .....more