Desjardins Group

Desjardins Group is the kind of financial co-operative people reach for when they want banking, insurance, and member-style services under one roof. By our assessment, its real strength is the cooperative structure and the wide spread of everyday products that can make it feel less like a distant megabank and more like a local financial system with branches, cards, loans, and insurance together. The downside is that a broad group can feel uneven: some parts are banklike, some are insurerlike, and the experience depends on which piece of Desjardins you are dealing with. In practice, that means a lot of ordinary forms, account management, and policy reading rather than anything sleek or dramatic. Compared with online banks, it is more layered and more old-school; compared with tiny credit unions, it is much larger and more sprawling. By our assessment, Desjardins Group is for people who want a broad Canadian co-operative institution and do not mind a fairly institutional feel.