OP Financial Group's Year 2023 and Sustainability

OP Financial Group's vision is to be the leading and most appealing financial services group in Finland. Our mission is to promote the sustainable prosperity, security and wellbeing of our owner-customers and operating region. OP Financial Group's Year 2023 and Sustainability describes how the Group executed its mission and strategy in 2023.

Key figures and ratios 2023

Total operating profit EUR 2,050 million. Distribution of operating profit: retail banking 60 per cent, corporate banking 20 per cent and insurance 20 per cent. Operating profit was 838 million euros in 2019, 785 million euros in 2020, 1,127 million euros in 2021, 1,120 million euros in 2022 and 2,050 million euros in 2023. Capital adequacy ratio (CET1) was 19.2 per cent in 2023. Green loans, sustainability-linked loans and credit limits were 6.6 billion euro. Proportion of sustainable funds in all fund assets at end of 2023 was 87.7 per cent. Total Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions of exposures by asset class amounted to 5.2 million tonnes CO2e. Emissions are distributed as follows: corporate loans 59 per cent, mortgages 6 per cent, motor vehicles 5 per cent and listed shares and corporate bonds 30 per cent. There were more than 1.6 million active users on OP Financial Group’s mobile channels in 2023. There were 56 million logins to OP’s mobile channels on average per month. At the end of the year, OP Financial Group had 2.1 million owner-customers.  The value of the new OP bonuses earned by owner-customers totalled EUR 275 million. We will increase the OP bonuses earned in 2024 by 40 per cent. The estimated value of additional bonuses is 86 million euros.

Review by the President and Group Chief Executive Officer

Strong capital adequacy, excellent liquidity and broad trust among customers and other stakeholders are vital both for banks and insurance companies. OP Financial Group is in great shape in all these respects.

Timo Ritakallio, President and Group Chief Executive Officer

The Finnish economy was affected by exceptional uncertainty and instability in 2023. A mild recession began late in the year and unemployment rose slightly. Inflation slowed down but remained clearly higher than in the preceding years. Despite lowering at the year end, market rates remained considerably higher than previously familiar levels, due to the European Central Bank's continuation of its tight monetary policy.

On the housing market, home sale volumes and demand for home loans were clearly lower than a year earlier. In addition, home prices continued their downward trend. The year-end fall in market rates boosted the stock markets, raising share prices on several stock exchanges. However, Nasdaq Helsinki's stock indices ended 2023 in negative territory for the year as a whole. Geopolitical risks were high throughout the year, intensifying in late 2023 as a result of the Middle East crisis in particular.

Despite the challenging business environment, OP Financial Group's business operations developed extremely well in 2023, leading to an operating profit of 2,050 million euros. OP Financial Group is one of the most financially solid large banks in Europe. Furthermore, our liquidity remained excellent.

Our strong performance will enable us to provide our almost 2.1 million owner-customers with better benefits in 2024, playing our part to ease the strain on households in these economically challenging times. We will pay 40% extra on OP bonuses earned in 2024 and will not charge our owner-customers any monthly fees for daily services throughout the year. The total value of higher benefits on OP bonuses and daily services will rise to around 400 million euros. 

Being customer-owned, OP Financial Group will continue sharing its financial success through a range of financial and other benefits for its owner-customers.

Read the whole review

Our strategy

Our mission and values guide our operations and choices and give a meaning to our work. Our values – people first, responsibility, and succeeding together – guide everything we do.

Read more about OP Financial Group's strategy

We will build a sustainable tomorrow together

As Finland's largest provider of corporate loans and financial services, we have the important task of supporting our customers in their transition to a carbon neutral economy. Reducing our own emissions is also important, but we can achieve the greatest impact by directing the most essential sectors in our portfolio to more sustainable and emission-free activities.

We have set sector-specific emissions reduction targets for three sectors which account for more than 90% of the Group's Scope 3 emissions. Measured from the 2022 initial level, our goal is to reduce by 2030:

  • the emissions intensity of energy production by 50%
  • the absolute emissions associated with the agricultural sector by 30%
  • the emissions intensity of home loans by 45%.

Data at the core of OP Financial Group

2023 was one of the most active years in OP Financial Group's history for data utilisation. Our strategic priorities for data seek to create value for customers and for the Group, to secure high-quality and efficient operations as well as to foster the data capabilities and the competitive edge which they make possible.

Highlights 2023

OP Financial Group introduced new sustainable finance solutions for the needs of SMEs, housing companies and farmers

The role of sustainability in business continues to be emphasised. In 2023, OP Financial Group promoted its customers’ goals for green transition by developing new sustainable finance solutions. The Group launched the new green loan and three EIF guarantees of the European Investment Fund intended for various purposes in order to make it easier for SMEs and housing companies to get financing. An EIF guarantee is granted on the basis of a green business model or for a green investment. The guarantee enables customers to get loans on favourable terms.

In the latter half of the year, the Group also launched sustainable supply chain finance to encourage supply chains to more sustainable operations through sustainability-linked financing.

OP Financial Group began an extensive cloud migration and utilises cloud services built by Microsoft in Finland

In summer 2023, OP Financial Group and Microsoft announced that they will deepen their IT collaboration. Through the partnership and migration to the Microsoft cloud environment, the Group will be able to provide its customers with even better services and adapt quickly to the digitalising world. The cloud migration is a significant investment for the Group in new technology, IT expertise and operating model. The decision to concentrate IT services on the cloud ecosystem located in Finland and build its new digital services and data platforms in Microsoft Azure will foster digital growth in the whole of Finland. In 2023, OP Financial Group also announced that it will recruit 300 international top IT talents to develop the financial services of the future.

OP Smart Contracts service for easier car sales between private individuals

In 2023, OP Financial Group brought new safety and smoothness to car sales between private individuals by launching the OP Smart Contracts service. The service provides everything people need when changing cars, in a single package, making the process transparent, smooth and safe for both the seller and the buyer. Through the service, the buyer can apply for financing, buy motor vehicle insurance and register the car in connection with the purchase.