Canadian credit unions will have access to an all-inclusive portfolio of technology solutions, financial products and services being provided through a strategic alliance between Desjardins Group and CGI Group Inc.

“This alliance is perfectly aligned to our development strategy for the Canadian market. Moreover, it allows us to concretely contribute to strengthening the country’s network of cooperative financial institutions while helping to position this network as an alternative to banks,” said Alban D’Amours, president and CEO of Desjardins Group.


In April 2005, Desjardins announced a service agreement with L’Alliance des caisses populaires de l’Ontario, through which Northern Ontario’s 13 caisses committed to the implementation of Desjardins’ IT solution. In addition, Desjardins Credit Union, an Ontario financial cooperative, also selected the Desjardins information system to accelerate its development.

“It is through partnerships such as these, which are respectful of the needs of the organizations, that we have created a foothold outside Quebec and can continue to build upon our presence moving forward,” added D’Amours.

According to Serge Godin, chairman and CEO of CGI, “Through many years of serving the cooperative industry, CGI has gained extensive knowledge of the unique needs of over 200 credit unions and their members across Canada. We are very pleased about being able to bring our clients a wider range of state-of- the-art, IT solutions giving them new options to further enable them to broaden their offering. We are dedicated to helping our credit union clients win and grow and look forward to continued collaboration.”

Desjardins Group is the largest integrated cooperative financial group in Canada, with overall assets of more than $106 billion. CGI is among the largest independent information technology and business process services firms in North America.