Guardian deal, capital markets hiring put pressure on rivals in $500 billion AUM race
Desjardins is sitting on more than $4bn of excess capital and wants to turn a rapidly growing balance sheet into $500bn of wealth assets within five years.
That makes the Quebec co‑operative a more serious national player for advisors and competitors.
According to Bloomberg, Desjardins Group plans to step up its expansion outside Quebec by using mergers and acquisitions and new hiring in wealth management and capital markets.
The pending acquisition of Toronto-based Guardian Capital Group Ltd. will lift its wealth business to around $300bn in assets under management and advisement, and Chief Executive Officer Denis Dubois has set a target of $500bn within five years.
He said “mergers and acquisitions will be part of the play to get there.”
Desjardins Group said surplus earnings before member dividends reached $3,811m in fiscal 2025, up 13.6 percent from 2024, driven in particular by the Personal and Business Services segment, which benefited from growth in net interest income mainly due to business growth.
It said the Wealth Management and Life and Health Insurance segment posted higher other income and higher net insurance service income, helped by favourable financial markets.
For 2025, that segment generated total net revenue of $4,286m, up 13.0 percent, and net surplus earnings of $756m, up $123m from 2024.
Dubois linked the group’s strategy directly to scale and technology.
He told Bloomberg that “scale is important when you look at the level of investment you need to do, whether it’s in artificial intelligence, security, digital transformation,” noting that Desjardins spends $2bn per year on technology. “And if you don’t have the scale, it’s just hard to keep pace with that,” he said.
Desjardins is among the largest retail financial institutions in Canada, with a $510bn balance sheet that makes it only slightly smaller than Montreal‑based National Bank of Canada, even though about 65 percent of its business remains in Quebec.
Desjardins Group said its Tier 1A capital ratio was 23.7 percent at December 31, 2025, and Bloomberg reported that its Tier 1 capital ratio sits near 24 percent, almost double that of Canada’s largest banks.
Dubois said this means “excess capital over $4 billion we need to redeploy, so we’re in a position where we have the resources.”
Desjardins’ capital markets arm forms a key part of that deployment.
The business, launched around 2010 as commercial clients grew, is now one of the main drivers of its expansion roadmap.
Head of capital markets François Carrier told Bloomberg that “building up a solid capital markets capability is ultimately just making sure you’re not dropping the ball someplace along the way.”
He plans to double revenue and increase headcount by about 50 percent over time, with most of the new jobs in Toronto, where he said some of the expertise he needs is easier to find.
He added that the focus is on “completing the toolbox” and building capabilities such as over‑the‑counter equity derivatives.
According to Bloomberg, most of Desjardins’ corporate finance and M&A advisory work sits in the mid‑market, notably in real estate, energy transition and mining.
It acted as joint bookrunner for Champion Iron Ltd.’s US$500m offering of senior unsecured notes last year and advised Minto Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust’s special committee on its $2.3bn sale to Crestpoint Real Estate Investments Ltd.
The competitive backdrop is also shifting.
Bloomberg reported that National Bank of Canada, Desjardins’ main rival in Quebec, has the same ambition to grow outside the province and agreed to acquire Canadian Western Bank for more than $5bn to capture clients in the western provinces.
National Bank CEO Laurent Ferreira said, “Our strategy was always to grow out of Quebec. Now this is a footprint to be able to leverage even more.”
Desjardins Group said total net revenue rose 11.2 percent in 2025 to $16,308m, while net interest income increased 10.8 percent to $8,279m, mainly due to growth in average residential mortgages and business loans outstanding.
Other income rose 14.7 percent to $4,938m, in particular due to growth in assets under management and under administration. It also reported assets under administration of $673,007m and assets under management of $122,756m as at December 31, 2025.
