Yes, that's an excellent point. I'm glad you brought that up. I touched on Desjardins Group's structure. It is network-based, meaning a group of independent financial institutions have joined forces. Being a financial institution, a deposit-taking institution, government agencies do provide a certain degree of protection. That involves deposit insurance.
Despite that, Desjardins Group introduced an intermediary contingency, the stability fund that every caisse contributes to. What that does is keep the entire group financially stable, while fostering solidarity among the caisses. In the event of trouble within the network, a form of intervention is possible to safeguard the stability of the group as a whole.
If you like, I could give you more technical details on how it works, but basically it is a layer of contingency within the group, where reserves are built up. That is quite typical of cooperatives. They do indeed function democratically because members vote and elect the leadership. They likely operate in a slightly less aggressive and much more secure fashion, counterbalancing the attitudes and behaviour of traditional businesses.