Desjardins Financial Security is reporting higher net income for 2001.

Desjardins saw its profit increase by 3.8% compared to 2000, going from $69.3 million to $72.0 million. The portion of the result that is attributable to shareholders increased by 9.8%, up from $61.5 million to $67.6 million. This result represents an 11.1% return on shareholder’s equity, the same as the previous fiscal year.

“We are all the more proud that the successes of all our sectors of activity were achieved in the midst of the merger of Desjardins-Laurentian Life Assurance and The Imperial Life Assurance Co. of Canada. Our new company now provides financial security to some 5 million Canadians and ranks eighth among life and health insurers in Canada in terms of written premiums,” said François Joly, president and COO at the firm’s annual meeting held today.

Total premiums reached $1.6 billion, up slightly from $1.56 billion in 2000. In 2001, Desjardins Financial Security paid close to $1.5 billion in insurance and annuity benefits, dividends and refunds to its insured.

It saw strong growth of 53% in group insurance sales and 10% in individual insurance sales, and the creation of 306 new jobs. Of the new jobs, 212 of them are permanent. Recruiting will continue into 2002, notably with the hiring of financial security advisors. Desjardins intends to increase the number of financial security advisors in caisses from 250 to 400 by the end of 2002.

To foster growth in its various sectors of activity, Desjardins Financial Security strengthened its position in the Canadian group insurance and annuities sectors, primarily by focusing sales efforts in Ontario and the Maritime Provinces on small and large markets and by setting up regional sales branches in the Western Provinces. Among other things, the company made agreements with fourteen distributors of financial products throughout Canada. These agreements specifically involve Millennia III and certain savings and insurance products, like Solo, Strategic Index Plus and Index Plus Tactic.