The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that some of Canada's big banks are chalking the fourth quarter up to getting bad news out of the way, while others warn that increasing provisions point to a softening economy and regulatory landscape. The Post's Barbara Shecter quotes CIBC analyst Paul Holden saying in a note, "We see potential downside risk to 2024 earnings expectations across the banks based on higher credit losses." However, a portion of the provisions taken by the banks represents performing rather than impaired loans, meaning borrowers are continuing to pay them back. Provisioning by banks in their commercial lending portfolios is not focused on one particular sector, but signs of stress in commercial real estate in the United States were visible in the Q4 report posted by CIBC on Thursday. CIBC reported a 14-per-cent increase in gross impaired loans in the fourth quarter, with 60 per cent of the new impairments coming from the bank's commercial real estate portfolio. National Bank's Gabriel Dechaine said the impairments in CIBC's commercial real estate portfolio were primarily tied to the U.S., where office property has been hit particularly hard, but he sees an improvement for CIBC in 2024.