Pohjola to Open a Branch Office for Corporate Customers in Riga - Services to Expand in the Baltic countries

Press Release
27 August 2012 


Pohjola will expand its operations in the Baltic countries by opening a corporate branch office in Riga, Latvia, where Pohjola will provide its customers with payment and liquidity management services and working capital finance and investment financing.

- The Baltic countries play an important role in Pohjola's strategy and in the improvement in international service capabilities. The region's importance to our banking group's customers is also growing. By opening the branch office, we wish to serve our existing customers in the Baltic market too. We will also target our services at local large Latvian companies, says Reima Rytsölä, Senior Executive Vice President, Banking.

- Customer focus, flexibility and speed number among our assets. We build our customer relationships on a long-term basis based on in-depth knowledge of customer needs and their business, and close interaction, he continues.

Enabled by the new branch office, Pohjola and OP-Pohjola Group member cooperative banks can provide their corporate customers in Latvia with payment and cash management services.

Pohjola has run finance-company business in the Baltic countries since 2008. Its service range has included extensive finance lease services. In addition, Pohjola has been operating in the region for some two decades through its non-life insurance subsidiary Seesam. In the summer of 2011, Pohjola opened a corporate branch office in Tallinn, Estonia. Pohjola is also planning to open a corporate branch office in Vilnius, Lithuania.


For more information, please contact:

Reima Rytsölä, Senior Executive Vice President, Banking, Pohjola Bank plc, tel. +358 (0)10 252 4422, reima.rytsola@pohjola.fi
Jorma Alanne, Executive Vice President, Baltic Banking, Pohjola Bank plc, +358 (0)10 252 4450, jorma.alanne@pohjola.fi





Pohjola Bank plc is a Finnish financial services group which provides its customers with banking, non-life insurance and asset management services. Our mission is to promote the prosperity, security and wellbeing of our customers. Profitable growth and an increase in company value form our key objectives. Pohjola Group serves corporate customers in Finland and abroad by providing an extensive range of financial, investment, cash-management and non-life insurance services. We offer non-life insurance and private banking services to corporate customers. Pohjola Series A shares have been listed on the Large Cap List of the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki since 1989. The number of shareholders totals around 34,000. Pohjola's consolidated earnings before tax came to 258 million euros in 2011 and the balance sheet total amounted to 41 billion euros on 31 December 2011. Pohjola is part of OP-Pohjola Group, the leading financial services group in Finland, which has over four million customers.