Desjardins group remains committed to finding ways to build its business outside its home province of Quebec. This includes investing in its insurance and wealth-management businesses via its various subsidiaries and seeking out alliances with credit unions in the rest of the country, either through partnership arrangements or as a third-party provider of financial services.

But for the Lévis, Que.-based financial services giant to achieve success outside of its home province, says Monique Leroux, Desjardins’ chairwoman, president and CEO, it will have to continue to make itself a more familiar name in the rest of Canada through various forms of advertising, outreach efforts, continued investments and new initiatives.

“If we were to go back even five years ago, our name wasn’t well known outside Quebec,” she says. “Today, we are making solid progress in terms of brand recognition, as well as promoting a better knowledge [among non-Quebeckers about the nature of Desjardins’ business].”

Although opportunities still exist in Quebec, Leroux says, a key focus for Desjardins must include ways to extend its business across the country.

Last year, Desjardins underwent a significant internal reorganization, revamping its wealth-management and life insurance units to leverage its capabilities across both its caisse (a form of credit union found in Quebec) network and the parent firm’s various subsidiaries. Says Leroux: “It will allow us to introduce additional products, additional support for financial advisors, and likely give us a more integrated way of working within the various components of that platform.”

This year, new talent was brought on board to bolster the wealth-management operations. In January, Grégory Chrispin, formerly president and managing director of State Street Global Advisors Canada Ltd., was hired as vice president of investments in Desjardins’ wealth-management and life and health insurance division.

Then, in August, Denis Ber-thiaume, formerly senior vice president of retail markets with Standard Life Canada, was hired as senior vice president and general manager, charged with leading the entire wealth-management and life and health insurance division at Desjardins.

“The two of them have a lot of experience in the Canadian market,” Leroux says, “and they will certainly help the team to develop the possibilities for us outside of Quebec.”

Desjardins manufactures and distributes life insurance and wealth-management products through a variety of subsidiaries: Desjardins Financial Security, which includes an insurance and savings product sales force (branded as the DFS Independent Network) and a mutual fund dealership; Desjardins Securities Inc., which includes a full-service brokerage arm as well as Disnat Direct, the firm’s online brokerage; and Desjardins Asset Management, its asset-management arm; Northwest & Ethical Investments LP, a mutual fund company that Desjardins owns 50/50 in tandem with the credit union centrals outside Quebec; as well as other key subsidiaries.

In 2011, Desjardins will be looking to open three more centres outside Quebec within its DFS Independent Network — bringing the total outside the province to 29 — and add another 150 advisors to its current force of 450, says Alain Bédard, the firm’s vice president of individual insurance and savings in Montreal. Desjardins is also seeking to add five or six more alliances to its existing roster of 20 to 25 agreements for its managing general agency.@page_break@Also in 2011, Desjardins will look to introduce its Northwest & Ethical fund lineup through its advisors and launch a pilot project selling its Desjardins-branded mutual funds through DFS as well.

The other key component to Desjardins’s growth outside Quebec is developing partnerships and business relationships with the credit union system in the rest of the country. “Whenever we can, we try to be very proactive in meeting with credit union colleagues, responding to requests for proposals,” Leroux says. “And we hope that over time we can do more and more together.”

Desjardins is looking to enter more partnerships similar to the deal it signed in 2009 that saw Desjardins and the credit union centrals in the rest of Canada merge two mutual fund product lineups into the Northwest & Ethical lineup.

“It was the first significant partnership in recent memory that brought the credit unions and Desjardins together,” says Don Rolfe, president and CEO of Vancouver-based Central 1 Credit Union, the organization representing the credit unions of British Columbia and Ontario; Rolfe works out of Central 1’s Mississauga, Ont., office. “I’m quite optimistic that there will be new opportunities for us to collaborate and to do things jointly. Or for Desjardins — which is certainly bigger than Central 1 — to provide [third-party] services.”

Desjardins already provides a variety of third-party services to several credit unions, including credit card services and back-office services for the credit union system across the country — something Desjardins would like to do more of, Leroux says.

Although the parent firm has Desjardins-branded caisses populaires and credit unions outside Quebec — particularly in francophone communities outside of its home province — it does not seem eager to expand its retail network in the rest of Canada or be a direct competitor to credit unions outside Quebec.

“We hope that our English-speaking colleagues from other credit unions will feel more comfortable having discussions with us,” Leroux says. “Sometimes, they might perceive us to be this large integrated group [that] would like to integrate them, but that’s not the case.”

Desjardins, the brand around which Quebec’s 481 caisses populaires are organized — is the largest financial services institution in that province and the largest co-operative financial services institution in the country, reporting $175 billion in total assets under administration as of Sept. 30.

In contrast, Vancouver-based Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, the country’s second-largest financial co-operative, reported AUA of $13.8 billion at the end of the second quarter of its fiscal 2010.

Desjardins, which has some 5.8 million members and around 42,300 employees, also has been posting good results. Combined surplus earnings, before member dividends, were $1.25 billion for the nine months ended Sept. 30 — up by 50.4% over the same period in 2009.

In addition, the co-operative’s Tier 1 capital ratio as of Sept. 30 was 17.6%, which is significantly higher than those of the Big Six banks, whose ratios fall in the 12%-14% range.

“It’s because of our co-operative nature,” Leroux says. “We are not there to maximize return to shareholders on a quarterly basis. We believe that a solid financial [services] institution is important for our members.” IE