The Desjardins difference

Your caisse belongs to you

What's a Desjardins caisse?
What's a bank?
A little Desjardins caisse history

A Desjardins caisse, or credit union, is a cooperative financial institution that's owned by its members. Together, the members choose their board of directors and board of supervision, the two groups that manage it.

Each Desjardins caisse is independent but is backed by a regional office or federation, which serves as a type of head office. Each caisse has a manager, employees, and members. The members are both the users and the owners of the institution.

A bank is a corporation. It has a board of directors that's elected by its shareholders. This board runs all of the bank's branches from a head office. Each branch has a manager, employees, and customers.

A bank is owned by its shareholders, individual investors who are out to make as much profit as possible. A bank's customers use its products and services but have no say in its operations.

The Bank of Montreal was Canada's first bank. It's still around today, but it's not alone. It's been joined by many other banks since 1817, some of which have since closed or merged together.

Around the turn of the century, the bulk of Quebec's population lived in rural areas. Times were tough and people had very little money. To get a loan, they had to provide guarantees, something that most couldn't do. In 1900, Alphonse Desjardins set up a cooperative in Lévis to help these families and so, the first Desjardins caisse was born. This type of cooperative soon became a model for saving and synonymous with accessible credit throughout the province.

One at a time, caisses continued to spring up across Quebec. When Alphonse Desjardins died in 1920, the number had risen to 187. Except during the Depression, Desjardins caisses have enjoyed unmatched growth ever since!

Want to open an account at a Desjardins caisse? Visit the Desjardins Youth Profit Account page.