Desjardins Group

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The Desjardins Group (or Mouvement des caisses Desjardins in French) is the largest association of credit unions in North America. It was founded in 1900 in Lévis, Québec by Alphonse Desjardins.

Located mostly in Québec but also in Ontario, Manitoba, and New Brunswick, it is composed of 536 local caisses populaires, which serve 5.8 million members. The entire system is regrouped into 11 regional federations.

Total assets at Desjardins Group reached $135 billion CAD in 2006. This ranks it as the sixth-largest financial institution in Canada and the largest in Québec, ahead of National Bank of Canada. It had in 2006 over 39 985 employees and 7,020 elected and volunteer officers. In 2006, it gave its members $483 million CAD in patronage allocations and $64 million CAD in donations, sponsorships and academic scholarships^[1]. Most of this latter sum went to regional economic development and health purposes.

The Desjardins Group has over 11 subsidiaries, ranging from insurance services (Desjardins Financial Security, Desjardins General Insurance), real estate (Place Desjardins), venture capital funds (Desjardins Venture Capital) and brokerage services (Desjardins Securities).

The Desjardins Group, through its subsidiary Développement international Desjardins, is also working in over 50 developing countries such as Burkina Faso, Vietnam and Mexico.

Desjardins Group is currently expanding outside the province of Quebec: in 1992 it opened the Desjardins Bank in Florida to cater to southbound Quebecers, particularly snowbirds and retirees; this latter practice has also been adopted by a number of the banks in Canada.

Desjardins is a member of:

• CDIC
• Interac
• NYCE ATM Network
• CBA

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Alphonse Desjardins
• Complexe Desjardins

[edit] External links

• Desjardins Group website