Absolutely.
To make sure we have the right facts, Vancity is only one representative of a credit union in British Columbia. British Columbia has numerous credit unions, which are in urban and rural areas. They're employment-based. They're sometimes religious-based. They're across the gamut. There are 40% of British Columbians who belong to a credit union, in one way or another. I believe it's about a 25% market share in terms of banking, somewhere around that range.
We believe that the way to strengthen the credit union system nationally is what the legislation should be focused on, not for an individual institution to be able to exercise its focus on just geographic reach. In order to do that, we believe it should enable us to work together, as a cooperative system, in a stronger way.
We could look at the Ontario credit unions, for example, from the B.C. perspective, and how do we help them learn from and extend our business models in a way that's relevant for their communities, make sure they have the capital means that they need, and the infrastructure means?
You hear credit unions talking about regulations around infrastructure, banking systems, regulatory burdens, etc., that are becoming too costly. Well, there are different ways we could structure ourselves. Again, I point to Desjardins as another model, using a federated model that has accomplished that. The caisses populaires could be effective in their own right, while still allowing a structure where they could deal with the burden of scale, etc.
I think we need to look at structures and regulations that support that type of model, or do more research. There's definitely research that needs to be done. I wish I could take you all to Italy, on our program to Bologna, so you could see first-hand...or even come to Vancouver to see how we've done it with Vancity. Vancity really is a collection of 59 different branches that are communities. I think that is what needs to be considered, not approaching the same regulations that are relevant and applicable and necessary for banks, which operate differently, and say we can basically transport that over with some minor tweaks. I think it needs to be a fundamental look at what it would take to support that structure.
The question in Ontario is that it's also the home place for the major banks. If you look at the statistics, that's the place that has the least amount of penetration in the credit union system, versus the rest of the country, which is very different. Are people satisfied? When I come to Ontario and talk to people, they are not necessarily satisfied. If you look at the data on bank satisfaction with consumers, it's telling as well.
There are ways, but you're on the right track, in that you have to be able to see how we could organize ourselves and solve our own problems and meet the needs of our consumers in a way that doesn't limit us to geographic reach. It doesn't mean applying a model that means we can go national just for the sake of going national.