Canada has the highest per-capita use of credit unions in North America, with more than a third of the population enrolled in one. They are popular in Quebec, where they are known as caisses populaires (people's banks).
As of December 31, 2010, the Caisses Populaires Desjardins federated 451 member caisses with CAD$ 172.3 billion in assets and 5.8 million retail members, making it the sixth largest financial institution in Canada.
Credit Union Central of Canada federates most credit unions in the English-speaking provinces. As of the end of 2009, the 10 affiliated systems operated 419 credit unions controlling CAD $122 billion in assets from 5.1 million retail members. In British Columbia, 46 credit unions with assets of $48 billion, serve 1.7 million people.
Famous quotes containing the words credit, unions and/or canada:
“Japanese mothers credit “effort” as the key determinant of a child’s achievement in school, while American mothers name “ability” as the more important factor.”
—Perry Garfinkel (20th century)
“The newly-formed clothing unions are ready to welcome her; but woman shrinks back from organization, Heaven knows why! It is perhaps because in organization one find the truest freedom, and woman has been a slave too long to know what freedom means.”
—Katharine Pearson Woods (1853–1923)
“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerable—I mean for us lucky white men—is the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)