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With the opening of a new branch in Montreal's northern end, SFL Partner of Desjardins Financial Security is continuing to expand in Quebec. The company, an affiliate of the well-known Desjardins Group, opened its fourteenth financial centre in Quebec and the seventh in the Montreal region last week, at 1600 Henri-Bourassa Boulevard where the city's prospering Saint-Laurent and Ahuntsic-Cartierville boroughs meet.
A first in province
The branch is the first SFL financial centre in the province to offer services geared specifically toward an allophone and anglophone client base. Éric Douville, who is the managing director, has many years of experience with Desjardins Financial Security, and elsewhere in the financial services industry, where he has held several high-level positions.
"My number one goal will be to develop the significant allophone and anglophone markets in this area, which is the home to a wide range of cultural communities," he said. "Our plan is not only to offer these clients insurance and savings products adapted to their unique needs, but also to build close relationships with them and the local business people."
Part of large network
SFL's latest centre is part of a financial products and services distribution network with 55 service locations in Canada. The national network has some 1,100 associates, $5.9 billion in assets under management, and over a million clients. Through the network, the company claims, clients have access to a wide range of innovative products and advisory services designed to meet all their financial security needs.
The centre fits in perfectly with Desjardins Financial Security's strategy of strengthening its financial product and service distribution channels not only in Quebec but across Canada, said Alain Bédard, senior vice-president for individual insurance and savings at Desjardins Financial Security. "More Quebecers and Canadians will now have better access to the products we are developing on their behalf and to the expertise of advisors dedicated to ensuring the financial security of their clients and their loved ones," Bédard said.
Significant growth
During a brief speech SFL vice-president Stéphane Dulude gave before a ribbon-cutting at the new branch's official opening last week, he noted how the company has grown by leaps and bounds all over Quebec, but especially that it had some of its earliest successes on the island of Montreal.
In an interview, branch manager Douville said his staff members represent a wide range of countries from all over the world, including Korea, China, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria and numerous other African nations. "We have employees from nine cultural communities in our office," he said. "This is what we want to do by expanding into these communities and we have a good cross-section of the population with which to achieve this goal."
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