According to the Act on the Amalgamation of Deposit Banks, the central cooperative is obliged to support its member credit institution in order to prevent it from being placed into liquidation and is liable for its member credit institution’s debts which cannot be paid using the member credit institution’s capital. Each member credit institution, for its part, is liable to pay a proportion of the amount which the central cooperative has paid to another member credit institution as part of support action or to a creditor of such member credit institution in payment of an amount overdue. In the case of the central cooperative's default, a member credit institution has unlimited refinancing liability for the central cooperative's debts.
OP Financial Group comprises the amalgamation and those non-amalgamation entities of which entities belonging to the amalgamation hold more than half of the total votes.
The extent of OP Financial Group differs from that of the amalgamation in that OP Financial Group subsumes entities other than credit and financial institutions or service companies. The most important of these are the insurance companies with which the amalgamation forms a financial conglomerate.
More detailed information on the legal structure of OP Financial Group and its amalgamation can be found in the Financial Statements of OP Financial Group. Neither OP Financial Group nor the amalgamation forms a corporate group as referred to in the Accounting Act, or a consolidation group as referred to in the Act on Credit Institutions. The central cooperative prepares consolidated financial statements of the amalgamation as referred to in the Act on the Amalgamation of Deposit Banks, including entities over which the amalgamation’s member entities have control.
OP Financial Group has three business segments: Retail Banking (Banking Private and SME Customers), Corporate Banking (Banking Corporate and Institutional Customers) and Insurance (Insurance Customers).
OP cooperative banks
OP cooperative banks are independent, local deposit banks engaged in retail banking. They are OP Cooperative's member credit institutions. OP cooperative banks provide modern and competitive banking services to private customers, SMEs, agricultural and forestry customers and public-sector entities.
In terms of their organisation type, OP cooperative banks are cooperatives whose decision-making grounds include the one member, one vote principle. Within the OP cooperative banks, the members, i.e. the owner-customers' decision-making power is exercised by the Representative Assembly or the cooperative meeting comprising owner-customers, and the supervisory council and the board of directors, all members of which are owner-customers.
Federations of Cooperative Banks
There are six Federations of Cooperative Banks, which are regional cooperation bodies for the member cooperative banks. The federations ensure cooperation and interaction between OP cooperative banks, and maintain and promote Group spirit and unity. In addition, a federation's member banks cooperate with each other in projects related to e.g. corporate responsibility or training provided to the members of the member banks' governing bodies.
The federations nominate their regions' candidates for OP Cooperative's Supervisory Council and for other bodies of OP Financial Group to which they are entitled to nominate candidates.
The meeting of a Federation of Cooperative Banks, which comprises representatives of its member cooperative banks, elects the board of directors to represent the federation and attend to its affairs.
OP Cooperative, the central cooperative
OP Cooperative is the central cooperative of OP Financial Group, and it is domiciled in Helsinki. The central cooperative's members may include credit institutions, as referred to in the Act on the Amalgamation of Deposit Banks, whose bylaws or articles of association have been approved by the central cooperative. The central cooperative's Supervisory Council decides on admitting new members.
The purpose of the central cooperative as the central cooperative of the amalgamation and as the company heading the financial conglomerate formed by OP Financial Group is to equitably contribute to and support the development of, and cooperation between, its member credit institutions, other OP Financial Group companies and entities and the entire Group. To that end, the central cooperative controls the Group's centralised services, develops the Group’s business, manages the Group's strategic control and lobbying and manages control and supervision duties belonging to the central cooperative of the amalgamation and the company heading the financial conglomerate. Furthermore, the central cooperative acts as OP Financial Group's strategic owner institution.
Within the central cooperative, member cooperative banks exercise their decision-making powers at the Cooperative Meeting and in the Supervisory Council elected by it.