OREANDA-NEWS. November 16, 2009. BIGBANK was the first Estonian bank to open a branch in Finland, which will offer term deposits on the Finnish market. BIGBANK, which up to now has owned branches only in Latvia and Lithuania, used to be active on the Finnish market as a cross-border service provider.

According to Targo Raus, the Chairman of the Management Board of BIGBANK, the bank is not unknown in Finland, because it has offered the possibility of depositing as an electronic bank service already from May 2008 and there is continuous interest towards this service.

''The branch was opened mainly because of the wish to come closer to our clients and to offer an even better service through personal consulting and servicing,'' Raus added.

The Head of the Finnish Branch of BIGBANK will be Veiko Kandla, a Member of the Board, who has long-term experience in working in the finance sector. The first branch office in Finland will be opened in November, in the Kamppi shopping center in Helsinki. Next year the bank plans to begin offering also loan services and expand the possibilities of the Internet bank services for the Finnish clients.

BIGBANK is a credit institution based on Estonian capital, which has branches in Latvia, Lithuania and Finland and offers a cross-border service in Germany. BIGBANK's bonds are listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.

As at the end of September, BIGBANK had a total of 27 branch offices in the Baltics - 10 in Estonia, 7 in Latvia and 10 in Lithuania. The group employed 365 people - 170 in Estonia, 129 in Latvia and 66 in Lithuania.

During the first 9 months of this year, BIGBANK earned 106.2 million Estonian kroons of net profit.