Coop Pank's third-quarter profit rises 30% to EUR 9.1 million as Estonia's supervisor issues a precept
The Tallinn-listed lender's quarterly gain came mostly from lower impairments, and a day after the results Finantsinspektsioon ordered fixes to governance, risk control and lending procedures.
Written with AI tools by Boards and Capital's editorial system; the publisher is responsible for it. How this site works
Coop Pank, the Tallinn-listed Estonian lender, earned a net profit of EUR 9.08 million in the third quarter of 2026, up 30 per cent from EUR 6.97 million a year earlier and 10 per cent above the second quarter, according to its unaudited interim report published on 20 October. A day later the bank disclosed that Estonia's financial supervisor, Finantsinspektsioon, had issued it a precept after an on-site inspection, requiring changes to governance, internal control and lending procedures.
All figures below are in euros as reported by the bank, so no currency conversion is involved.
The quarter line by line
| EUR thousand | Q3 2026 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net interest income | 22,737 | 20,781 | 18,299 |
| Total net income | 23,763 | 22,288 | 19,542 |
| Operating expenses | -12,467 | -11,060 | -10,459 |
| Profit before impairment | 11,296 | 11,228 | 9,083 |
| Impairment of financial assets | -391 | -1,419 | -664 |
| Income tax | -1,828 | -1,587 | -1,448 |
| Net profit | 9,077 | 8,222 | 6,971 |
Net interest income rose 24 per cent year on year to EUR 22.74 million and made up almost all of the EUR 23.76 million of total net income. Interest income grew faster than interest expense, and the report puts the net interest margin at 3.2 per cent, against 3.0 per cent in both the second quarter and the third quarter of 2025. Funding cost was 2.1 per cent, unchanged on the quarter and down from 2.3 per cent a year earlier.
The profit increase on the quarter came almost entirely from lower impairments. Profit before impairment rose only EUR 68,000 from the second quarter, because operating expenses climbed 13 per cent to EUR 12.47 million. Impairment charges fell to EUR 391,000 from EUR 1.42 million, which added more than EUR 1 million to pre-tax profit. Overdue loans were 2.0 per cent of the portfolio, compared with 2.3 per cent a year earlier.
For the nine months, net profit was EUR 25.61 million, against EUR 21.53 million in the same period of 2025, an increase of 19 per cent by our calculation from the bank's table, according to the results release. Nine-month operating expenses rose to EUR 34.49 million from EUR 30.07 million.
Balance sheet and targets
The net loan portfolio reached EUR 2.30 billion at 30 September, up EUR 68 million in the quarter and EUR 278 million in a year. Business loans grew EUR 33 million in the quarter and home loans EUR 32 million. Deposits rose faster, by EUR 131 million in the quarter to EUR 2.32 billion, so deposits exceed net loans. Total assets were EUR 2.97 billion and equity EUR 251.6 million.
Return on equity was 14.6 per cent in the quarter and the cost to income ratio 52 per cent. The bank's long-term targets, listed in the report, are a return on equity above 15 per cent and a cost to income ratio below 45 per cent, so the first target is within reach while the second is seven percentage points away. Own funds were EUR 283 million, down from EUR 287 million at the end of June, and the liquidity coverage ratio was 213 per cent.
Arko Kurtmann, chairman of the management board, said in the release: "The third quarter confirmed that Coop Pank's growth remains profitable." He said the bank was "making good progress towards our strategic target of achieving annual net profit of more than EUR 60 million by 2030."
Capital markets and shareholders
The bank updated its medium term note and covered bond programme in September. "We doubled the programme limit to EUR 1.5 billion and expanded the range of instruments," Kurtmann said. The City of Tallinn sold its stake of approximately 3 per cent in the bank during the third quarter, the release said, and Coop Pank counted 31,500 shareholders at 30 September. Its strategic shareholder is the retail chain Coop Eesti.
The supervisor's precept
The precept disclosure of 21 October says the inspection findings cover the organisation of governance and internal control; the management of operational, IT, credit and interest rate risk; supervisory reporting; and lending procedures. Coop Pank said it agrees with the findings and will make the required changes by the deadlines set in the precept, which fall in 2026 and 2027. It said it has already approved an ESG policy, updated its market risk management policy and expanded its market risk stress testing scenarios.
Heikko Mäe, management board member and chief risk officer, said the findings mainly concern how the bank structured its internal operations and documents day-to-day decisions, and called sound risk management "the foundation of a bank's trustworthiness". The bank said the precept does not affect its daily operations, customer service or previously reported financial results. It did not publish the precept itself or put a cost on the work.
The disclosure adds Coop Pank to a run of board and control changes at the region's listed lenders this autumn, after Komerční banka's management board change and PKO Bank Polski's third-quarter legal risk charge.
What comes next
Moonika Maaring joins the management board from November to lead retail banking, the release said. Under the bank's 2026 financial calendar, Coop Pank publishes its October results on 11 November and its November results on 10 December.