OREANDA-NEWS. On August 09, 2007 OP Bank Group posted all-time high January-June (EUR 523 million, up 34%) and April-June (EUR 278 million, up 56%) earnings before tax, reported the press-centre of OKO Bank.

All businesses within the financial services group continued their strong growth and the group's market position strengthened further. The OP-Pohjola integration proceeded according to plan. Card cooperation with K-Group got off to a good start. OKO Bank Group en-hanced its loyal customer benefits substantially.

Executive Chairman's comments
During the first half of 2007, OP Bank Group enjoyed exceptional success in its various business areas. Whether we set our overall development against our targets or market developments, our first-half performance can justifiably be characterised as excellent.

The period's favourable operating environment contributed to achieving all-time high earnings. However, I think that the right choices we have made and our genuine cus-tomer focus in particular lie behind our development in line with our strategic core - sustained, strong growth in customer numbers and our business segments' above-market-average growth. Our excellent first-half performance proves that our recent improvements in offerings have been met favourably by our customers. We succeeded in further strengthening our position as the largest financial services group in Finland.

Special, individual sources of joy during the reporting period included a marked euro-based increase in loyal customer benefits in line with our customer promise, determined efforts to continue the OP-Pohjola integration process and our cooperation with Kesko that got off to a flying start, and making progress in these areas will continue to be high on OP Bank Group's agenda. Simultaneous vigorous growth in savings accounts and mutual fund savings is also worth noting.

OP Bank Group's prospects towards the end of 2007 look very favourable. We continued to boost our competitiveness during the first half. With our earnings power stronger than ever, our risk exposure is stable and growth rate in line with our strategy.