Desjardins Group announces that credit unions plan to reduce their service centers and ATMs by around 30% by December 31, 2026.
The news reported early Wednesday morning by The sunwas confirmed at The Canadian Press by e-mail.
A Desjardins spokesperson, Jean-Benoît Turcotti, explains that the boards of directors of the credit unions analyzed the use of their service centers and their ATMs. It was following this analysis and current forecasts of members’ needs that decisions were made.
The decision on which service centers will have to be closed and which ATMs will be removed will be made by the boards of directors of the credit unions. Desjardins believes that they are the ones best placed to make these decisions since they know the needs of their members and their communities.
Mr. Turcotti points out that these figures could evolve in one direction or the other depending on the use of the services made by members. He adds that members increasingly want to interact with Desjardins using digital solutions and that Desjardins must find a balance between the evolution of the network of service centers and automated teller machines and the investments required in digital.
As of December 31, 2023, the use of checkout counters only represented 1% of the transactional volume, while tellers only represented 3%, according to Desjardins.
Two months ago, credit unions ended the ability for members to use a passbook to update their banking transactions.
A month ago, Desjardins had 669 service centers and 1,559 ATMs in Quebec and Ontario.
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