Arko Kurtmann elected as new chair of Coop Pank

Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Coop Pank Rainer Rohtla says that Kurtmann and his team will now start putting together and implementing the bank’s strategy for the next five years.

“The Supervisory Board and our nominations committee conducted a thorough search to find a new chair to oversee the bank’s management,” he said. “Arko is a strong leader with years of experience in banking, team management and team-building. His personal qualities and our strong team are sure to steer Coop Pank into a new period of growth. As the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, I can confirm that the bank is aiming high on the Estonian market, and that we’ll be able to meet those targets under Arko’s leadership by making the most of our existing strengths and creating new ones.”

For his part, Arko Kurtmann says he is grateful for the trust placed in him by the Supervisory Board and accepts the challenge that lies before him with high expectations of both himself and the Coop Pank team as a whole.

“Our bank is a business that has 35,000 local owners,” he remarked. “We’re responsible for their assets, and not just for preserving them, but for growing them.”

Kurtmann noted that the bank’s profits are falling for the second year in a row. “That’s a trend we quickly need to reverse, and to start growing again,” he said. “The drop-off is largely due to the external interest rate environment, but we can do a lot ourselves in-house to address it. Which is easier said than done, of course, but the direction we need to take is clear: we have to increase our revenues and cut our costs.”

The new chairman added that Coop Pank’s shares have never been as cheap as they are at present. “Our shares are currently priced at €1.90 and are trading below book value,” he explained. “In the last five years we’ve increased our profits four times, but our share price has only gone up twice. We’re working to double our profits and thereby boost the bank’s value. We feel this is likely to be reflected in growth in our share price.”

Kurtmann has served on the Management Board of Coop Pank and as its Head of Corporate Banking since 2020. Among the bank’s subsidiaries, he is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Coop Kindlustusmaakler AS and the chairman of the Supervisory Board of Coop Liising AS. He is a graduate of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, where he majored in economics and entrepreneurship. He holds a total of 135,600 shares in Coop Pank AS, both as a private individual and through Corby Capital OÜ. He has also been granted an option for a further 217,600 shares.

In connection with Kurtmann being appointed Chairman of the Management Board, the bank’s Supervisory Board elected Lehar Kütt as his replacement as Head of Corporate Banking and as a member of the Management Board. Kütt has been the bank’s Head Of Corporate Client Financing for the last four years, and previously served as Chairman of the Management Board of KredEx. His term on the Management Board begins on 8 September 2025 and will last for three years. He was also elected as a member of the Supervisory Boards of the Coop Pank subsidiaries Coop Liising AS and Coop Kindlustusmaakler AS. He has Master’s degrees in economics (from the University of Tartu) and engineering (from TalTech). He owns 24,372 shares in Coop Pank AS and has been granted an option for a further 99,600 shares.

In addition to Arko Kurtmann and Lehar Kütt, the bank’s new Management Board also consists of Karel Parve (Head of Private Banking), Paavo Truu (CFO) and Heikko Mäe (CRO).