Finland's OP Group reports record high quarterly profit

Finnish financial company OP Financial Group announced on Wednesday its April-June profits hit a record high.

The group's profit reached 331 million euros(370.44 million U.S. dollars)in the second quarter, a 7.5 percent increase from the same period last year. However, the profit of the group's banking sector registed a year-on-year decline of 10 percent from April to June.

OP's CEO Reijo Karhinen told media that due to the company's strong capital base, the OP Group endured fluctuations in the investor markets.

He also cited the result of a recent European bank stress tests, which showed OP was one of the strongest banks in Europe. The group's capital adequacy was well above the minimum official requirements even in an operating environment of an extremely adverse scenario.

The financial group, which has over 1 million customer-owners, is the largest financial institution in Finland.

The cooperative nature of OP has aroused suspicions from competitors. The group allows its customer owners to pay less than its regular customers for banking and insurance services.

Last year, a key competitor in the insurance sector asked competition authorities to find out whether OP was dumping insurance prices. OP CEO Reijo Karhinen then dismissed the criticism as an attack against the Finnish cooperative system.

In its Q2 report, the OP Group said that the Finnish economy witnessed a slight rebound in the first half of the year. This was based on a recovery in the domestic market, especially construction. Weak world economic growth has not been sufficient to stimulate Finnish exports. Endit