Lac-Brome, Sutton, Saint-François-Xavier-de-Brompton, are three new communities that in turn lose Desjardins services. For rural communities like these, this is a hard blow.
For several days, Desjardins members who go to the Lac-Brome and Sutton counters have found themselves behind closed doors.
“I live in Mansonville, the counter there has been closed since 2016. I came here to Lac-Brome and learned today that it is permanently closed. In Sutton too… things are going well!” said a septuagenarian user of the teller counters found on Monday morning by TVA Nouvelles.
At these two facilities, members now only have access to ATMs. For over-the-counter transactions, they have to travel about twenty kilometers to the cash register in Cowansville.
“I will go today because I have no other choice, but then I will transfer all my accounts to the bank. I’m also changing insurers. We are the ones who gave birth to Desjardins and look what they are doing to us,” said another.
For his part, Lac-Brome Mayor Richard Brucombe fears the negative economic impacts this could have on the municipality: “People who go to do their banking in Cowansville risk taking advantage of the opportunity to make your low purchases there. to the detriment of our local businesses here.”
In Saint-François-Xavier-de-Brompton, the Desjardins teller counter has been closed for several years, leaving the counter as the only means of transaction for the population. Now the institution announces the withdrawal of this window from December 6.
“Desjardins is a good partner in various activities in the municipality and we appreciate it, but here they go against all the efforts we make to offer local services to the population in a spirit of sustainable development, whether they can access them on foot or by car bicycle”, stressed the mayor Adam Rousseau.
Desjardins denies having let down the people of Quebec. “Desjardins remains the most accessible financial institution in the province with more than 1,600 ATMs and more than 700 service points,” insisted the organization’s spokesperson, Jean-Benoit Turcotti.
The statistics collected by the Desjardins Group in 2022 show that only 3% of all transactions carried out by Desjardins members were made at the counter, 1% at the cashier counters.
