August 7, 2018

As a fitting conclusion to the 2018 inaugural Coopératives-HEC Montréal challenge, the Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins International Institute for Cooperatives presented the Award of Excellence to Claude Chartrand for his supervised project on the cooperative movement.

The student is enrolled in the Management Control Master’s program at HEC Montréal and was selected by a jury composed of professors and researchers from HEC Montréal.

Summary of the supervised project « La gouvernance des coopératives de services financiers » by Claude Chartrand

The paper focuses on the governance of financial services cooperatives (FSCs). It seeks to demonstrate how governance is exercised in the particular case of these organizations, which are member owned, democratic (one vote per member, with councils composed of elected members), and which put member satisfaction above all, as opposed to commercial banks.

It outlines the role of competition and network structure in their governance as well as traditional mechanisms such as the legal and regulatory framework and the board of directors, for the protection of investors and the coordination of the activities carried out by the different constituencies.

Finally, the paper also raises the question of democratic governance of FSCs, in particular the election of directors on the skills required by the Desjardins Group’s board of directors.

Download PDF (in French)

About the author, Claude Chartrand

Claude Chartrand is a member of the Corporation of Accountants (CPA, CGA), and holds a bachelor’s degree and a graduate degree in administration from HEC Montréal. He worked for the SAQ for 35 years, climbing the ranks to the position of Senior Director, Control and Financial Systems. Passionate about passing on knowledge, he also taught accounting as a lecturer.

He undertook his studies at the M.Sc. to enrich his knowledge in management control and corporate governance. The theme of his work stems from his interest in history and his desire to broaden his knowledge of governance by studying another type of business: financial services cooperatives.