The Financial Post reports in its Saturday, Jan. 13, edition that Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is looking to offload loans on struggling U.S. office properties. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that CBRE Group has been hired to find buyers for $316-million (U.S.) of performing and non-performing office loans. The seller is CIBC, according one unnamed source. The bids for the debt are due in mid-February. A CIBC spokesman declined to comment. A spokesman for CBRE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Banks have been seeking to reduce their exposure to commercial real estate, exploring loan sales over the past year as high borrowing costs depressed values of properties backing the debt. Capital One Financial, which sold a large office-loan portfolio to Fortress Investment Group last year, later put more loans on the market, Bloomberg reported in November. Other banks had hesitated on debt sales due to geopolitical turmoil and uncertainty around whether borrowing costs would continue to rise. Now, as central banks signal they are winding down their rapid rate-hiking cycle, buyers and sellers are more motivated to transact.