Coop Pank grows its volume of business and profit

In 9 months this year, Coop Pank, which gained new local shareholders early this year and entered the market with a new trade mark in October, grew the volume of business in its key lines of business and earned a sizeable profit with support from extraordinary revenues.

Coop Pank’s loan portfolio of grew 40 per cent compared to the beginning of the year and reached 215 million euros as at the end of September. At the same time, the deposit portfolio grew by 22 per cent, reaching 309 million euros.

Coop Pank had 9 months’ net profit of 4.4 million euros, including an extraordinary profit of 3.2 million euros generated by the sale of real estate. Compared to the same period last year, the net interest income of the bank grew 46 per cent, or 2.5 million euros, to 7.9 million euros. Profitability was negatively affected by costs related to the closure of the Latvian branch as well as costs related to the introduction of the new trade mark. Any profit earned from extraordinary revenues is invested by the bank in the expansion of its operations.

According to Margus Rink, Chairman of the Management Board of Coop Pank, this autumn is of pivotal importance for Coop Pank, since the third quarter marked the end of a period of nearly 9 months for the reorganisation of the operations of the bank and for the introduction of a new trade mark. “From October, we will be able to focus on building up our operations under the Coop Pank trade mark. The trade mark change could be implemented successfully and without a hitch; however, Coop Pank is definitely not finished yet – instead, this is the beginning of a long journey. Our objective is to find synergy in the collaboration of the bank and the shops to benefit the client, the shops and the bank alike. Taken together, all this provides a good platform for winning over new clients,” Rink said.

This year, the number of Coop Pank’s clients has grown by 1300. Coop Pank and its subsidiaries employ approximately 200 people at the head office and at 14 branches across Estonia.

This autumn, the bank intends to launch the first 20 banking points at Coop shops and to then begin to gradually increase the number of banking points. From spring next year, Coop Pank plans to provide the option of cash withdrawal at the cash registers of Coop shops across Estonia, creating Estonia’s biggest cash transaction network.

Coop Pank will publish a complete interim report on its financial performance in the third quarter in November.

Estonia’s only co-operative retail group, Coop Eesti, whose sales network includes more than 350 shops across Estonia, acquired a majority holding in AS Eesti Krediidipank, previously owned by the Bank of Moscow, in January this year. Following the transaction, the bank gained a new Supervisory Board, Management Board and business strategy and entered the market under the name Coop Pank last October.

Coop Pank, based on Estonian capital, takes advantage of the synergy generated between retail and banking and brings daily banking services closer to people’s homes. Coop Eesti, consisting of 19 co-operatives, has about 80 000 private shareholders and approximately 600 000 regular clients across Estonia.