Members from the 11 Ontario caisses populaires and delegates of the Fédération des caisses populaires de l’Ontario (FCPO) voted overwhelmingly in favour of a merger during special general meetings held in in late November, the FCPO announced Thursday.
The new Desjardins Ontario Credit Union will officially open on Jan. 1, 2020. With 50 branches and a business centre, the new credit union will ensure its 130,000 members have access to services no matter where they are. The new credit union will have nearly 650 employees, 17 board members, and more than $13.6 billion in assets under management.
“We are pooling our strengths to build a large-scale financial cooperative,” says Stéphane Trottier, chairman of the board of directors at the FCPO, in a statement. “Our goal is to create a new entity that is both agile and efficient, with a single board of directors that represents all existing caisses. We will also be setting up 11 liaison committees to ensure that the credit union is connected to its members and their local realities.”
Several important activities will take place between now and the official opening of the credit union in 2020, such as appointing the general management team, developing the business plan and setting up the IT platform.
Since each caisse will keep the same transit number, member services will not be affected and account, credit card and debit card numbers will not change.