Denis Dubois was named the Desjardins Group's top executive in June and is now chasing potential deals in the insurance sector as well as in wealth management.Boris R. Thebia/The Globe and Mail
Desjardins Group’s new chief executive officer sees more growth opportunities for the financial services giant and is warning against being fatalistic about the tariff war being waged by the United States against Canadian business, saying he’s “not thinking about nightmares.”
Fresh into the CEO role after being named the top executive in June, Denis Dubois says Desjardins is working to close the $1.67-billion purchase of money manager Guardian Capital Group Ltd. GCG-T early next year. And he said Desjardins intends to expand the financial co-operative further through both organic initiatives and acquisitions, including inking other potential deals in the insurance sector as well as in wealth management.
“We’re still looking,” Mr. Dubois said in an interview Wednesday, adding there are other Guardian-sized targets available. “The way we look at this is we need to have a series of options” to build the business.
Mr. Dubois, 54, an actuary by training who has overseen three of the group’s five main business units as executive vice-president during a 22-year career at Desjardins, took over command of North America’s largest co-operative financial group in early September. He replaces Guy Cormier, who had a nine-year run.
Desjardins announced in August that it will purchase Guardian Capital, doubling the size of its wealth management platform. The Quebec-based lender previously paid $750-million to acquire Guardian’s insurance and wealth management operations and Guardian used some of the proceeds to expand its U.S. presence, most recently by acquiring North Carolina-based Sterling Capital Management.
Desjardins Group to acquire Guardian Capital for $1.67-billion
Guardian CEO George Mavroudis has said part of the rationale behind selling to Desjardins was gaining access to a long-term financial partner that was willing to fund a continued global expansion.
“We do want to be a top-100 global asset manager over the next five years,” Mr. Mavroudis said. “We are inching closer to that.”
Desjardins posted surplus earnings before dividends of $1.64-billion for the first half of the year, down $135-million from the same six months last year. Its property and casualty insurance arm was hit by higher claims expenses over the period.
Meanwhile, provision for credit losses nearly doubled to $413-million from the first half of 2024. The company blamed “an unfavourable migration in credit quality, an increase in volume and an unfavourable impact related to the updated economic outlook, mainly due to trade disruptions,” which affected business loan portfolios.
With most of its lending book in Quebec, a proportion of Desjardins’s business customers could be directly affected by U.S.-imposed tariffs, particularly in sectors such as aluminum, steel and agriculture, analysts with Fitch Ratings said in a recent report. The co-op holds a 42-per-cent share of all farm loans in the province, according to Fitch, which rates Desjardins credit at double-A-minus, with a stable outlook.
Mr. Dubois acknowledged Desjardins is seeing pressure on its commercial banking business but said it isn’t wavering in its support for its customers. Earlier this year, the organization identified 43,000 co-op member entrepreneurs that were exposed to U.S. tariffs and reached out to them asking how it could help.
The assistance ranges from short-term financing to longer-term business improvements through market diversification, automation or training, he said. He said, to date, Quebec entrepreneurs are proving remarkably resilient as they pivot to new strategies and avenues.
Asked how he’s thinking about U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionism and Canada’s tariff-battered industries, Mr. Dubois cautioned against assuming the worst outcomes will materialize.
“I’m not thinking about nightmares,” he said, adding all Canadians need to be realistic about what’s happening and adapt without being defeatist. “We need to find the way. ... We need to fight and find those opportunities. There are opportunities.”
There are other threats, however.
Under Mr. Cormier’s watch, Desjardins surpassed $500-billion in assets and solidified its retail position in Quebec. But it was also rattled by a massive privacy breach that saw information belonging to an estimated 4.2 million clients compromised. Mr. Cormier called it “a brutal wake-up call” for all organizations who keep personal data.
Cybersecurity remains top of mind for the organization today, Mr. Dubois said. He said 1,800 of Desjardins’s roughly 57,000 employees are currently involved in security operations while the co-operative is investing $300-million a year to protect its data.