Jean-Pierre de Montigny has been appointed president and Chief Operating
Officer of Desjardins Securities, the securities arm of the Mouvement des caisses Desjardins.

Mr. de Montigny will be involved in coordinating the merging of the retail and institutional brokerage services at Desjardins, which will not only allow the Mouvement Desjardins to obtain a bigger share of this market in Québec, but to better serve the institutional clientele and particularly those businesses with small or medium levels of capitalization.

He will report directly to the president and CEO of the Mouvement Desjardins. In addition, he will sit on the planning and strategic development committee for the Mouvement Desjardins and on the management committee for the Desjardins-Laurentian Financial Corporation. He will assume his new position
June 25, 2001.

For 20 years, de Montigny has held positions at several brokerage firms in Canada, including RBC Dominion Securities Inc., Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. and Lévesque Beaubien Inc., before joining Telesystem International Wireless Inc., where he is currently senior VP and CFO.

A graduate of McGill University and the Université du Québec à Montréal, de Montigny has obtained the Chartered Financial Analyst, Certified Business Valuator designations and is a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute.