Caisse Populaire

French credit union? Close...

Brought to you by our neighbors from the North, Caisse Populaire is a credit union-style institution in Canada. These institutions provide investment and lending services. Most of them are located in Quebec, although there are roughly one thousand of them in total. Some only have one branch total.

If you're not familiar, credit unions tend to rely on members to pool money or invest in the bank, so the bank can then fund projects that benefit the community or the group they serve. The idea is to return profits back to the members, rather than a few select investors getting to reap all the rewards.

Usually, the credit union-style institution will seek members that share a trait, like an employment group, or just living in the same area. Although...being that Canadians are famous for their good nature, we're sure if you asked nice, they'd let you join anyway.