Type of Organization Direct Business, Member Service and Financial Linkage

public, medium and large enterprises; support the provision of financial services and loans to small and medium enterprises;... In principle, the Central Fund mainly carries out activities that each Desjardins QTD is not capable of performing separately.

The main operating capital of the Central Fund includes its own capital (in which the charter capital belongs to the Federation), deposits of credit institutions, domestic capital sources, and capital sources in the international market.

The Central Fund lends to credit institutions, enterprises in the Desjardins credit system, medium-sized enterprises (in cooperation with credit institutions) and large enterprises (direct lending or joint venture with commercial banks). In addition, the Central Fund also lends to State organizations and agencies.

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c- Federation

The Desjardins QTD Federation is the coordinating organization of the Desjardins QTD system, with the function of representing interests, building strategic orientations, planning operations, regulating common standards, regulating available capital for grassroots QTDs (through the Central QTD), coordinating and supervising all activities of the Desjardins QTD system.

Organization

- Democratic structure:

+ Regional TVU: The operating area of the Desjardins QTDs is divided into 17 regions. This division is to ensure that QTDs participate harmoniously and democratically in the decision-making process of the Federation.

+ Regional Representative Council: Each region has a Regional Representative Council consisting of 15 members, including 10 unpaid volunteers and 5 QTD Directors elected by the Regional TVU. The Chairman of the Regional Representative Council is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Federation.

+ Federation-level Congress: Consists of 256 delegates, including 255 members of 17 regional representative councils and the Federation President. The Federation-level Congress elects the Federation President and 4 grassroots QTD Directors to join the Federation's Board of Directors.

+ Federation Congress: Consists of delegates from all Desjardins QTDs elected according to the prescribed ratio. Also attending the Federation Congress are members of the Regional Representative Council and members of the Federation Board of Directors. The main task of the Federation Congress is to decide on the strategic directions, missions and major projects of the Desjardins QTD system.

+ Federation Board of Directors: Has 22 members including 17 Chairmen of Regional Representative Councils, 4 QTD Directors elected by the Federation Congress and the Federation President. The Federation Board of Directors is responsible for managing, setting direction, planning, coordinating and supervising the activities of the Desjardins system.

- Operating structure:

+ The President of the Federation is also the head of the Federation's executive apparatus. The Federation's executive apparatus consists of departments at the Headquarters and 19 Regional Offices.

+ The Federation's headquarters consists of many functional departments responsible for specific areas of operation such as: TTK Office; VPGS & ATTC; Internal Audit Department; Strategic Planning Department, Cooperative Development and Project Management Support Department; Human Resource Training Department; sub-committees in charge of consumer market, enterprise market, business unit management, finance-administration, joint risk management, operations and human resources, information technology, etc.

+ The regional office has the function of providing QTDs with services on marketing, joint risk management, information technology, etc. The organizational structure of the regional office includes main functional departments such as: consulting

management, business with individuals, business with enterprises, human resource development, cooperative development and information and propaganda.

Work:

The Federation carries out the development of orientations for the entire system: projects of the QTDs that are related to the policy orientation of the system and have an impact on the image of the system must be approved by the Federation; is the official spokesperson of the system on issues related to the general interests of the system. In that capacity, the Federation is responsible for representing the system in relations at the regional, national and international levels; performs representative functions before government agencies on legal issues related to the system in coordination with relevant parties; considers issues of promotion, promoting institutional development, the use of symbols and names of the system's constituent units; coordinates the advertising and marketing of QTD services; identifies and implements partnerships to facilitate the development of the system and optimize operational efficiency in coordination with QTDs.

d- Organizations supporting system development

In addition to the basic organizations mentioned above, the Desjardins QTD system also has organizations that support system development, including:

Desjardins Safe Fund

The QAT is established to establish and manage a pool of liquid funds; to act in the mutual interest of the QTDs; to ensure the solvency of the QTDs by acting as a manager or sponsor of the deficit that the QTD's general reserve fund cannot cover; and finally to assist in the payment of losses that the QTD's members may incur when the QTD is closed.

The establishment of QAT has brought great and meaningful benefits to the Desjardins QTD system; namely: protecting the reputation of QTDs; increasing public confidence in QTDs; preserving the autonomy and freedom of action of the Desjardins QTD system; resolving financial difficulties as well as a number of other issues for QTDs; reducing the tax burden on the system. In particular, thanks to QAT, Desjardins QTDs only have to pay 1/2 of their contribution fees (through QAT) to the Quebec Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Staff Training Center

The QTD Desjardins system has an Eastern Training Center and a Western Training Center. The organizational structure of the two Centers is very compact: the Eastern Training Center has 29 employees and the Western Training Center has 40 employees. In addition, these two Centers also have a team of about 25 teaching collaborators (lecturers, professors at universities or experts in fields related to QTD's activities) from outside the system.

With the above complete organizational structure and increasingly extensive scale of operations in all classes of people and economic sectors in the province of Quebec (one of the most economically developed provinces in Canada), the Desjardins QTD system has truly become a cooperative credit group among the 5 largest financial groups in Canada.

1.4.2- Cooperative Banking System of the Federal Republic of Germany

In terms of overall structure, the German cooperative banking system consists of two main types of organizations, which are:

1.4.2.1- Type of organization that directly conducts business, serves members and has financial links

- Grassroots level: currently there are 1,690 grassroots cooperative banks directly operating business and serving customers, mainly members;

- Regional level: currently there is only 1 regional cooperative bank;

- National level: There is 1 German Central Bank (formerly known as DG Bank, now changed to DZ Bank) with branches and representative offices at home and abroad.

The objective of the cooperative banks is to serve their members on the principle of non-competition. Regional cooperative banks and the Central Cooperative Bank carry out business operations that the local cooperative banks cannot perform or perform with low efficiency. In addition, the regional cooperative banks and the Central Cooperative Bank of Germany can carry out co-financing activities with a local cooperative bank to share risks and improve investment efficiency.

1.4.2.2- Type of organization representing interests, linking to develop the system

 Regional Auditing Association: The regional auditing association performs the role of representing interests, conducting audits, consulting, training, organizing and managing the Preservation Fund for cooperative banks in the region. But the main and most important function and task is to conduct audits.

After conducting the audit of the Cooperative Bank, the auditor must prepare an Audit Report. The Audit Report is prepared based on the actual audit at the Cooperative Bank and from the results of the meeting before the end of the audit between the Auditors and the Cooperative Bank Supervisory Board and the Cooperative Bank Executive Board. The Audit Report reflects in detail all the activities of the Cooperative Bank from the management and supervision of the Supervisory Board, the operation of the Executive Board and specific business activities of the Cooperative Bank. The Audit Report is prepared in detail to serve as a basis for reviewing and evaluating the activities of the Cooperative Bank and to advise and recommend to the Cooperative Bank or to have a basis for implementing plans to strengthen and rectify each Cooperative Bank.

 Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks: The Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks is an organization representing the interests of the entire German cooperative banking system with the responsibility of

The Federal Association of Cooperative Banks provides training for leaders at all levels, including directors of cooperative banks and senior experts for the entire system; manages the Organizational Preservation Fund of the cooperative banking system; provides consultancy to the German Central Cooperative Bank, regional cooperative banks and special financial enterprises. The purpose of the Federal Association of Cooperative Banks is to support, care for and represent the professional interests, special economic interests and economic policies of member organizations.

The Federation of Cooperative Banks has the following basic tasks: supporting and orienting the development of the cooperative banking system; taking care of the interests of members in the economic, economic policy, legal and tax fields; carrying out legal, tax and business administration consulting activities; establishing and managing tools to protect and support cooperative banks; establishing, maintaining and supporting organizations to carry out human resource training for the cooperative banking system; maintaining relationships with domestic and foreign organizations.

 Organizational preservation fund: The Organizational preservation fund of the Cooperative Bank system is established to prevent or overcome existing problems, economic difficulties or risks of losing deposits and capital contributions of members to the Cooperative Bank and to maintain customers' trust in the organization. The preservation fund demonstrates the spirit of mutual assistance of Cooperative Banks on the basis of maintaining the principles of self-management and self-responsibility. When a Cooperative Bank has financial difficulties that cannot be overcome by itself, it will receive support from the preservation fund.

 Training facilities: Along with the tasks mentioned above, the German Cooperative Bank Associations also have the task of training staff for the Cooperative Bank. Training courses for apprentices, employees, leaders and members of management agencies and the management apparatus of cooperatives with the goal of

oriented to customer needs. These centers are under the German Federation of Cooperatives, and are responsible for organizing training activities and improving professional skills for cooperative organizations across the federation, including NHHTB, and are often called "regional training schools". These training schools are responsible for planning and conducting training and improving the necessary qualifications for cooperative staff in a timely manner at a reasonable cost so that they can proactively exploit the market and complete internal tasks, as well as being responsible for being effective companions in the process of personnel and organizational development.

1.4.3- Some general experiences drawn from two linkage models

Through studying the organization and operation of the Desjardins QTD system as well as the German Cooperative Bank system, the author has drawn some general experiences useful for the process of perfecting the organization and operation of the Vietnamese QTD system, namely:

♦ Firstly , the QTDND system needs to promote autonomy, self-responsibility and promote the spirit of solidarity and mutual assistance among the units that make up the system. In addition, making important decisions related to the organization, operation and development strategies of the system must be carried out in a democratic and transparent manner. To do that, the QTDND system model must ensure the promotion of the functions and tasks of the system's coordinating agency and linking mechanisms such as QAT, auditing, training, consulting, etc. Auditing and consulting activities are considered the most effective measures to help QTDND prevent, detect and overcome weaknesses in the organization, administration, operation and professional activities. This activity is carried out through auditing, consulting and member care.

♦ Second , QAT is one of the decisive factors in consolidating and rectifying weak QTDNDs. When facing financial difficulties, QTDNDs are supported by QAT on the condition that QTDNDs must commit to implementing necessary measures to overcome and rectify. One of the commonly applied measures is to change the administrative and operational personnel of weak QTDNDs. In addition , close coordination between auditing and QAT helps the process of supporting and monitoring the consolidation and rectification of QTDNDs to be highly effective. Thanks to that, QAT's activities have contributed to ensuring the safety of QTDNDs.

♦ Third , human resource training is considered a decisive factor for the success of the QTDND system. The QTDNDs and the officers and employees working in the system must always be aware of studying and improving their management, operation and operational capacity. In addition, the training activities of the Staff Training Center are constantly being improved and increasingly meeting the training needs of the QTDND system;

♦ Fourthly , the Central People's Credit Fund must always perform well its role of capital regulation, ensuring liquidity for the People's Credit Funds in a quick and flexible manner and immediately meeting the borrowing needs of the People's Credit Funds. In addition, the Central People's Credit Fund must also ensure that it performs well its role as the focal point for organizing the internal payment system and finding capital sources in the domestic and foreign markets; providing high-quality products and services at the most reasonable prices for the People's Credit Funds;

♦ Fifth, special attention should be paid to the role of QTDND members: Members are the foundation, the basic factor to build the QTDND system. Each member must have awareness and responsibility for the completion of the QTDND system.

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