In the history of cooperative financial models worldwide, adjustments to organizational structure and governance have not been short-term or ad hoc responses but rather an inevitable trend driven by the need to enhance efficiency, safety, and overall competitiveness. The case of Desjardins Group (Canada)—one of the largest cooperative financial groups in North America and among the leading institutions globally—provides a clear illustration of this developmental trajectory. The Desjardins model offers valuable practical insights for the People’s Credit Funds (PCFs) network and the Co-operative Bank of Vietnam (Co-opBank) as they refine their organizational and operational frameworks.
Desjardins was founded in 1900 in Lévis, Québec, by Alphonse Desjardins. It began as a network of local grassroots credit unions (caisses populaires), operating at the community level to provide accessible and affordable financial services to workers and local communities. Throughout the 20th century, alongside its rapid expansion, Desjardins developed a three-tier organizational structure comprising local credit unions, regional federations (fédérations), and a top-level confederation (confédération).
This three-tier model proved instrumental during the early stages of development, enabling the network to expand broadly while ensuring the autonomy of grassroots credit unions and preserving core cooperative values. However, by the late 1990s, mounting competitive pressure from commercial banks, escalating risk management requirements, and rapid technological advancement in the banking and financial sector exposed clear limitations in the traditional model, including an excessively cumbersome organizational structure, fragmented functions, and elevated administrative costs.
The year 2001 marked a pivotal milestone in Desjardins’ restructuring process, as the system began streamlining its organizational model toward a two-tier structure. Under this framework, grassroots credit unions were directly linked to the Desjardins Federation of Québec—the central pillar of the system and the core of today’s Desjardins Group. The system now operates under an integrated cooperative financial model, with strategic direction, risk management, and resource coordination centralized, while maintaining the autonomy and community-serving mission of local credit unions. This transformation preserved Desjardins’ cooperative values while enabling the Group to streamline its organizational structure, enhance governance efficiency, strengthen system-wide resilience, and establish a solid foundation for sustained growth in subsequent years.
Leaders of SBV and Co-opBank joint the study tour at Desjardins
In Vietnam, People’s Credit Funds (PCFs) network comprises grassroots PCFs and the Central People’s Credit Fund, both of which were established and developed beginning in the 1990s with the objective of providing financial support to rural areas, households, and local communities. During this evolution, the Central People’s Credit Fund was officially transformed into the Co-operative Bank of Vietnam (Co-opBank) in 2013, operating under Credit Cooperative model and serving as the central institution responsible for capital mobilization, liquidity management, and network-wide support for the PCFs network.
Similar to Desjardins, the organizational model of the PCFs network in its early stages was multi-tiered, reflecting the need to expand the network and consolidate its institutional foundations. As the network continued to grow, the requirements for standardized governance, enhanced risk supervision, technological adoption, and international integration have become increasingly urgent. In this context, the establishment and strengthening of Co-opBank’s central role clearly reflect the transition from a fragmented model toward a more streamlined and integrated structure.
Under this model, PCFs continue to fulfill their community-based role by directly serving members, while Co-opBank concentrates on core system-wide functions such as capital management, liquidity support, technology development, risk oversight, and external representation. This approach follows the same strategic logic as the reforms undertaken by Desjardins from 2001 up to now.
International experience demonstrates that model transformation does not diminish the role of grassroots institutions; rather, it involves a strategic reallocation of functions that enables the network to operate more efficiently, securely, and adaptively. For Co-opBank and PCFs network, this process reflects the maturation of the cooperative financial model and its alignment with the developmental imperatives of a new era.
From Canada to Vietnam, a clear commonality emerges in the trend toward organizational streamlining, the strengthening of central institutions, and the preservation of core cooperative values. This represents the inevitable trajectory for cooperative financial systems not only to adapt but also to achieve safe and sustainable development within a modern, highly competitive banking and financial environment.
On this basis, proactively studying and selectively adopting international best practices – particularly from successful cooperative financial models such as Desjardins – remains a critical foundation for Co-opBank and PCFs network as they continue to refine their operational frameworks. Through this process, Co-opBank’s central role is strengthened, thereby contributing to the safe, sustainable, and resilient development of the entire PCFs network in the years ahead.
Source: www.desjardins.com
