ANNUAL INFORMATION FORM FÉDÉRATION DES CAISSES DESJARDINS DU QUÉBEC Year ended December 31, 2017 March 14, 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS AR incorporated AIF 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........................................................................8 Investment funds................................................................................................9 General development of the business .....................................................................9 Description of business ............................................................................................14 Desjardins Group ................................................................................................14 Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec ..................................................14 27-39 Competitive conditions........................................................................................18 27-39 Regulatory capital and capital management.......................................................18 46-51 Regulation and control........................................................................................20 9-11 Powers of the Federation....................................................................................24 Trademarks, trade names and service marks ....................................................24 Social and environmental policies ......................................................................24 Caisse network ................................................................................................ 25 Risk factors .........................................................................................................33 53-85 Capital structure ......................................................................................................33 74-76, 165 General description.............................................................................................33 Credit ratings.......................................................................................................34 Market for securities................................................................................................36 74-75 Directors and executive officers...............................................................................38 Directors..............................................................................................................38 Executive officers................................................................................................41 Securities held by directors and executive officers ............................................42 Cease trade orders or bankruptcies ................................................................ 42 Penalties or sanctions.........................................................................................42 Conflicts of interest .............................................................................................43 Legal proceedings................................................................................................ 43 Transfer agent and registrar.....................................................................................43 Interests of experts................................................................................................ 43 Page 2 AR incorporated AIF by reference Additional disclosure ................................................................................................ 44 Outstanding securities ........................................................................................ 44 Indebtedness of directors and executive officers ............................................... 44 Transactions with restricted parties and related parties ..................................... 44 87, 177-178 Auditors............................................................................................................... 45 Additional information............................................................................................... 45 Statement of the Federation’s executive officer compensation ............................... 46 Audit committee information..................................................................................... 71 Corporate governance disclosure ............................................................................ 73 179-199 Board of Directors ............................................................................................... 73 Independent directors ......................................................................................... 74 Non-independent directors and bases for that determination............................. 74 Directorships with other reporting issuers or the equivalent............................... 74 Independent directors and regularly scheduled meetings at which 75 non-independent directors are not in attendance.......................................... Attendance record............................................................................................... 76 198 Mandate of the Board of Directors...................................................................... 76 Position description............................................................................................. 77 Orientation and continuing training ..................................................................... 78 Business ethics ................................................................................................... 79 Nomination of directors ....................................................................................... 80 183-184, 194 Compensation..................................................................................................... 80 Other Board committees..................................................................................... 81 Evaluation ........................................................................................................... 82 186 Schedules................................................................................................................. A – Rating categories by credit rating agency B – Audit and Inspection Commission Charter (Federation) C – Policy: Independent auditors of Desjardins Group AIF: Annual Information Form of the Federation for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 AR: Annual Report of the Federation for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 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, 2017 (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) website at www.sedar.com. Unless otherwise indicated or if the context otherwise requires, the expression “Federation” refers to the Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec and its direct and indirect subsidiaries, its predecessor entities or its other constituent entities or 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 1.3, “Financial outlook for 2018”, Section 1.4, “Changes in the economy”, Section 2.0, “Review of the financial results”, Section 3.0, “Balance sheet review”, and Section 5.0, “Additional information”, 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 and specific. It is therefore possible that, due to many factors, the assumptions made may prove to be inaccurate or 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