Vancity President and CEO, Christine Bergeron, shares what it means to be a successful for-profit co-operative at the forefront of many big changes in Canadian financial services.
Russell: Can you tell us about Vancity as a co-operative and how it's different from other kinds of financial institutions?
Christine Bergeron: We were actually founded to provide financial access to those in this city who were generally overlooked, so they might not have had access to systems that would raise them up financially. We were the first financial institution in Canada, as an example, to provide loans to women without a male having to cosign, the first deprioritized lending to working class immigrant families. You know, the next piece is really those principles of inclusion and social justice that for us have really been the cornerstone since day one. The third for us is that we give 30 percent of our profits back to our members and our communities every year. We often have to remind people that we're not a charity. We're a for profit co-operative. We're a profitable one. But we do have a different way of thinking, a different model in terms of giving back. And then, you know, maybe one last point is that for us, the impact of our actions on people and planet, it's really ingrained is both in how we make our profits and then also what we do with them. We have a triple bottom line business model that's measurable, but we really consider impact on people and planet in our decisions. And so that is quite different for most financial firms.
Russell: Thinking about the 30 percent of your profits that go back into the community, can you tell us a little bit about where does that money go specifically?
Christine Bergeron: This year we will have distributed almost 32 million to our members and into the community here. And since 1994, it's been over 420 million. So the money goes to members. We do split it up as a dividend to members and then, money that goes to community to grants, to community partnerships, working to improve racial equity, reconciliation, local economy, climate action. Those are certainly our bigger buckets. We don't have all the resources, nor do we have the know how the way community organizations have in each of their communities here in the lower mainland.
Russell: You are this secret innovator that has been at the forefront of almost every big change in Canadian financial services. You were the first branchless bank. You were the first to offer an open mortgage. You were the first to offer a registered education savings plan. Your first to market with so many of these innovations. How do you do it? Where does that come from?
Christine Bergeron: It sounds so simple, but really we just respond to the needs that we see in community. I find these days, you say innovation, and people think technology, but it's about the innovation also around systems. And that's where we've been spending a lot of time lately. How do we think differently about these systems that we're all part of, that as we've talked about, aren't really working for everybody. And I think some of what's probably helped along the way, I can't speak to all the innovations, but is our definition of success is not like how much money we can make on an innovation or on a new product. And that does actually give you a different way of thinking.
Russell: For some of our business leaders that are listening today, they may be thinking, what Vancity does is so inspiring, and I want some of that for my business. So how do you get a little bit of Vancity within a public company framework?
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Christine’s transcript has been slightly altered in this Q&A for clarity and brevity.