Audit
The General Meeting of OP Corporate Bank elects an audit firm chartered by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office to act as the auditor. The auditor’s term of office is the financial year during which they were elected, ending upon the closing of the next Annual General Meeting after their election.
The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of OP Cooperative (OP Corporate Bank plc’s parent entity) puts audit services out to tender at some five years’ interval, on the basis of which it makes a recommendation to the Board of Directors on the auditor to be appointed. The Board of Directors makes a proposal to the Cooperative Meeting regarding the appointment of an auditor. The Audit Committee of OP Cooperative’s Board of Directors annually assesses the quality of the auditor’s performance and ancillary services, the independence of the audit firm’s auditors and the statement of ancillary services.
The audit firm’s auditors are tasked with auditing the accounting, internal control, accounting policies, management accounting judgements, presentation and structure of the financial statements of the company and its Group in order to obtain assurance that the financial statements of the Group entities have been prepared in compliance with the rules and regulations in force governing the preparation of financial statements and give the company’s shareholders and other stakeholders a true and fair view of the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the Group.
KPMG Oy Ab, a firm of authorised public accountants, acted as the company’s auditor in 2022 with Juha-Pekka Mylén, APA, acting as the chief auditor, appointed by KPMG Oy Ab. KPMG Oy Ab has acted as the company’s auditor since 2002 and Juha-Pekka Mylén as chief auditor since 2019.
OP Corporate Bank plc has used KPMG Oy Ab’s advisory services related mainly to the comfort letters of bond programmes.
In 2022, audit fees paid by OP Corporate Bank plc to auditors totalled EUR 264,000 (283,000), whereas fees for assignments as referred to in chapter 1, section 1(1)(2) of the Auditing Act totalled EUR 2 000 (0), fees for tax advisory services EUR 127,000 (139,000) and fees for other services EUR 81,000 (62,000). Non-audit services provided by KPMG Oy Ab totalled EUR 183,000 (201,000) (excl. VAT). The corresponding figures for 2021 are shown in brackets.
Supervision by the central cooperative
OP Corporate Bank belongs to the amalgamation of deposit banks, under applicable laws. The amalgamation comprises OP Cooperative as the central cooperative together with its member credit institutions as well as financial institutions and service companies in which the above-mentioned institutions jointly hold more than half of the voting rights. OP Cooperative controls the amalgamation’s operations and provides the companies within the amalgamation with guidelines on the qualitative requirements for safeguarding their liquidity and capital adequacy, as well as guidelines for their risk management, good corporate governance and internal control. The central cooperative may also confirm general principles to be followed by the member credit institutions in operations relevant to the amalgamation.
OP Cooperative supervises the operations of its member credit institutions, including OP Corporate Bank, as referred to in the Act on the Amalgamation of Deposit Banks. In its operations, the company takes account of OP Financial Group’s strategy, confirmed by OP Cooperative’s Supervisory Council, and regulations and guidelines on risk management and other operations issued by OP Cooperative to the member banks. OP Corporate Bank reports to OP Cooperative in a separately agreed manner.
Regulatory supervision
OP Corporate Bank is supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority and the European Central Bank as prescribed in the laws governing financial and insurance markets. The company’s operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are supervised when applicable by the respective national regulators.