Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will curb its U.S. office investment activity due to weakness in the sector, Reuters reported.

The move comes as Toronto-based CIBC, one of Canada’s big-six banks, and its competitors guard against potentially sour loans that weigh on earnings, according to the news agency. CIBC reported lower-than-expected earnings in its 2023 second quarter report.

The bank blamed a threefold increase in bad-loan provisions – to $736 million in the second quarter of 2023 from $243 million a year earlier – on soft U.S. real estate and construction industries, according to Reuters.

“Where we are seeing the issues is in commercial real estate and in particular, in the institutional office space,” Shawn Beber, the bank’s head of U.S. operations, told analysts.

“It’s a part of the business we’re de-emphasizing.”