Desjardins Group, Canada's largest cooperative with nearly $200billion in assets, announced it will purchase up to 40% ofoutstanding shares of Qtrade Financial Group, an online brokerageplatform.

The agreement is between the credit union's subsidiary,Desjardins Financial Corporation Inc., and Qtrade, which hasprovided brokerage and wealth management platforms, services andsolutions to more than 180 credit unions and other financialinstitutions across Canada since 1999. The firm said it overseesapproximately $7.5 billion of client assets.

The Vancouver-based Desjardins said it will initially purchase between 25% and 40%of the outstanding shares of Qtrade from current security holdersand has the right to buy the remaining shares over the next sixyears.