Coop Pank, which is based on Estonian capital, increased the amount of business in all its major lines of business last year, enlarged its private and corporate clientele and tripled the profit earned through banking operations.
The number of customers who do daily banking in Coop Pank increased by 9,000 in 2018, reaching 45,000 by the end of the year. At the same time, the bank’s loan portfolio increased by 37 per cent, having reached 335 million euros by the end of December. The amount of deposits increased by 22 per cent during the year, reaching 385 million euros.
In 2018, Coop Pank earned a profit of 4.75 million euros. The total profit of the group of companies in 2017 was 4.5 million euros, which included the extraordinary proceeds from real estate sale in the amount of 2.9 million euros. Without the extraordinary proceeds, Coop Pank’s profit from banking tripled in comparison with the year before. The bank’s return on equity equalled 10 per cent.
The business income from banking increased by 37 per cent during the year, primarily through interest income. Operational costs grew by 18 per cent, primarily through personnel-related expenses. The quality of the loan portfolio remained very good, and provisions were made in the same amount as the year before.
By the end of the year, Coop Pank had 16 branch offices and 29 banking points all over Estonia. In addition, last summer an opportunity was created for clients to use their Coop Pank cards to withdraw money in any of 350 Coop shops without a service fee.
The chairman of the board of Coop Pank, Margus Rink, said that 2018 had been a successful year for Coop Pank because its amount of business had increased, substantial profit had been earned, and Coop Pank’s position as one of the five universal banks operating in Estonia had been strengthened.
Margus Rink: “The most important thing is that our distinctive strategy has attracted customers’ attention, so more and more people are choosing the domestically owned Coop Pank for their daily banking, bringing their income and everyday operations to us. In total, last year we won over 9,000 clients, which means that our everyday banking client base has increased by 15,000 or by half since Coop Eesti purchased the majority holding in the bank and redesigned its previous business strategy. In addition, the number of people using our Säästukaart Pluss payment card exceeded 100,000 last year.
The growth of the bank’s amount of business was driven by our financing lines of business: business loan, mortgage loan, consumer loans and leasing, which was to be expected in the context of a generally strong economic environment. In order to finance this rapid growth, we raised approximately 50 million euros in deposits in the German and Austrian markets and 15 million euros of institutional investors’ funds through the Raisin platform during the year”.