Note that Crédit Agricole, the french bank, is based on a cooperative model with 5.5 millions person having each one vote, 16 millions retail clients, and more than 130 000 employees worldwide, see here.
About the Crédit Agricole, as far as I know, in France, co-operative banks (including mutuelles) hold the majority of the market shares. But they have often forgotten their founding values : I'm a customer of Crédit Agricole and I don't see the difference with a classical shareholder'sowned bank. It is not the case of the Desjardins group in Canada. "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Yes, I agree about loosing their founding values, but isn't that poised to happen when membership increase for any cooperative? How large is Desjardins?
BTW, I own shares of french financial cooperative La Nef where the founding values are very much alive. They have more than 13 000 shareholders. Jacky Blanc is a very energetic speaker BTW :).
Desjardins has a little more than 5 million members and around 40 000 employees. "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
