Desjardins Group

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Desjardins Group

Type	Cooperative
Founded	Lévis, Canada (1900)
Headquarters	Lévis, Canada and Montreal, Canada
Key people	Monique Leroux, President & Chief Executive Officer
Industry	Financial services
Products	Checking Accounts Insurance Stock Brokerage Investment Bank Asset-Based Lending Consumer finance
Employees	39 985 (2006)
Website	www.desjardins.com

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 $144 billion CAD in 2007, ranking it the sixth-largest financial institution in Canada and the largest in Québec, ahead of National Bank of Canada. It had in 2006 over 40 000 employees and 6 500 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 the latter sum was used on regional economic development and health programs.

The Desjardins Group has over 20 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 active in over 50 developing countries through technical assistance programs and various investments.

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: