The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, April 17, edition that CIBC chief executive officer Harry Culham says the lender is expanding financing for businesses as Ottawa injects cash into major infrastructure projects. The Globe's Stefanie Marotta writes that Ottawa and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions have been seeking ways to encourage Canada's biggest banks to lend more to finance major projects. CIBC aims to increase lending in key sectors like energy, agriculture, transportation and small businesses. Mr. Culham said: "We're going to lean in very heavily to this whole concept of nation-building, and that involves everything from infrastructure to the other areas. We have ample capital, we have a really strong balance sheet, and we are positioning ourselves to be very involved in the commercial and business banking part of economic growth over the next years." The fall federal budget included several measures aimed at creating competition in the banking sector, and OSFI is changing the way banks treat certain loans, in a bid to make it easier for them to lend to businesses. In the past three years, CIBC has increased its corporate and commercial lending in Canada by almost $20-billion.