Desjardins Smart Card to be Launched in St-Jérôme

Montréal (Québec), March 31, 2007 – Starting in the spring of 2008, members of Desjardins caisses in the city of Saint-Jérôme, north of Montréal, will be the first to be able to carry out debit and credit transactions using the Desjardins smart card.

This was announced today by Desjardins Group President and CEO, Mr. Alban D'Amours, at the cooperative institution's Annual General Meetings, being held in Montréal.

"We are especially proud today to announce the launch of the Desjardins smart card. A major step has been completed now that we have chosen the city that will serve as the launching pad for this innovative technology for electronic payments and banking transactions," declared Mr. D'Amours.

Desjardins teams are currently working on modifying ATMs and payment terminals in various businesses in Saint-Jérôme. Gradually, over the next few years, all of Desjardins' equipment will be adapted for use with this new technology.

Smart cards, also known as chip cards, contain a computer chip offering greater security and better protection against counterfeiting and fraud in case the card is lost or stolen. Credit transactions made with smart cards will be validated by a PIN (Personal Identification Number) rather than a signature, which also improves security while speeding up in-store transactions.

Because smart cards will be introduced gradually, depending on the implementation schedule of the various Canadian financial institutions, the new cards will also be equipped with a magnetic stripe, allowing them to be used elsewhere in the world, where smart card technology is not yet available.

For several years, Desjardins has been an active participant on a national committee created to define common ways to introduce smart cards to the Canadian market.

In 2006 alone, 430 million transactions were carried out at Desjardins point-of-sale terminals and 300 million transactions at Desjardins ATMs in Québec.

About Desjardins Group

Desjardins Group is the largest integrated cooperative financial group in Canada, with overall assets of more than $135 billion, as at December 31, 2006. It comprises a network of caisses, credit unions and business centres in Québec and Ontario, and some twenty subsidiary companies in life and general insurance, securities brokerage, venture capital and asset management, many of which are active across the country. Drawing on the expertise of its 40,000 employees and the commitment of 7,020 elected officers, Desjardins offers its 5.8 million individual and corporate members and clients a full range of financial products and services. Its physical distribution network is complemented by leading-edge virtual access methods. To find out more, consult www.desjardins.com.

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Source (for journalists only):
Nathalie Genest, Advisor
Information and Media Relations Department
514 281-7275
1-866-866-7000, ext. 7275

March 31
Press room at the Palais des congrès de Montréal
514 789-3488