ANNUAL INFORMATION FORM FÉDÉRATION DES CAISSES DESJARDINS DU QUÉBEC Year ended December 31, 2014 March 13, 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS AIF AR incorporated by reference Information incorporated by reference ..........................................................................4 Caution regarding forward-looking statements .............................................................4 Business structure.........................................................................................................6 Name, address and incorporation .........................................................................6 Members and auxiliary members ..........................................................................7 Investment funds ...................................................................................................8 General development of the business ..........................................................................9 Description of business ...............................................................................................14 Desjardins Group ................................................................................................14 Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec ..................................................14 22-32 Competitive conditions ........................................................................................17 22-32 Regulatory capital and capital management.......................................................17 39-42 Regulation and control ........................................................................................19 7-9 Powers of the Federation ....................................................................................21 Trademarks, trade names and service marks.....................................................22 Social and environmental policies.......................................................................22 Caisse network....................................................................................................22 Risk factors..........................................................................................................31 45-65 Capital structure ..........................................................................................................31 57-59, 141, 142 General description .............................................................................................31 Credit ratings .......................................................................................................33 Market for securities....................................................................................................34 Directors and executive officers..................................................................................35 Directors ..............................................................................................................35 Executive officers ................................................................................................38 Cease trade orders or bankruptcies....................................................................39 Penalties or sanctions .........................................................................................39 Conflicts of interest..............................................................................................39 Legal proceedings.......................................................................................................40 Transfer agent and registrar........................................................................................40 Interests of experts......................................................................................................40 Additional disclosure ...................................................................................................40 Securities outstanding .........................................................................................40 Indebtedness of directors and executive officers................................................41 Transactions with restricted parties and associates ...........................................41 67, 154, 155 Auditors ...............................................................................................................41 Additional information..................................................................................................42 Statement of the Federation’s executive officer compensation ..................................43 Audit committee information........................................................................................72 Board of Directors ...............................................................................................74 156-174 Independent directors..........................................................................................74 Non-independent directors and bases for that determination.............................75 Page 2 Directorships with other reporting issuers or the equivalent ...............................75 Independent directors and regularly scheduled meetings at which non-independent directors are not in attendance............................................75 Attendance record ...............................................................................................76 172 Mandate of the Board of Directors ......................................................................76 Position description .............................................................................................77 Orientation and continuing training .....................................................................79 Business ethics ...................................................................................................79 Nomination of directors .......................................................................................80 158, 159, 169 Compensation .....................................................................................................80 Other Board committees .....................................................................................81 Evaluation............................................................................................................82 Schedules....................................................................................................................83 A – Audit and Inspection Commission Charter (Federation) B – Institutional Policy, External auditors of Desjardins Group AIF: Annual Information Form of the Federation for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 AR: Annual Report of the Federation for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 Page 3 INFORMATION INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE Certain information contained in this Annual Information Form has been taken from the Annual Report of the Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (Federation) for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 (Annual Report) and has been incorporated by reference in this Annual Information Form as indicated in the table of contents. The Annual Report of the Federation is available on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com. Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, the expression “Federation” refers to the Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec and its direct and indirect subsidiaries, its successors, its other constituent entities and the other entities controlled by it. CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS The Federation’s public communications often include oral or written forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are contained in this Annual Information Form and may be incorporated in other filings with Canadian regulators or in any other communications. These statements include, but are not limited to, comments with respect to the Federation’s objectives regarding financial performance, its priorities, its operations, the review of economic conditions and markets, as well as the outlook for the Canadian, U.S., European and other international economies. Such forward-looking statements include, in particular, those in Section 1.2, “Financial outlook for 2015”, Section 1.3, “Changes in the economy and the industry”, Section 2.0, “Review of the financial results”, Section 3.0, “Balance sheet review”, and Section 5.0, “Additional information”, of the Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) of the Federation’s Annual Report. They are typically identified by words or phrases such as “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “estimate”, “plan” and “may”, words and expressions of similar import, and future and conditional verbs. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve assumptions, uncertainties and inherent risks, both general or specific. It is therefore possible that, due to many factors, the predictions, projections or other forward-looking statements as well as the Federation’s objectives and priorities may not materialize or may prove to be inaccurate and that actual results differ materially. The Federation cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as actual future results, conditions, actions or events could differ significantly from the targets, expectations, estimates or intentions expressed explicitly or implicitly therein. A number of factors, many of which are beyond the Federation’s control and the effects of which can be difficult to predict, could affect the accuracy of the forward-looking statements in this