OP bank to pay interest on deposit from Nov

OP Financial Group will give its owner-customers an extra benefit by offering an interest rate of 0.25 per cent on the bank current account from November 1, said OP in a press release on Monday.

The interest rate applies to some 1.9 million OP cooperative bank owner-customers with the total amount of deposits in the Current accounts amounting to 20.7 billion euros.

The value of this additional interest benefit is roughly 51 million euros.

The deposit interest rate of OP's Current account is currently a fixed zero per cent for all customers.

This interest benefit will be given to an OP cooperative bank owner-customer with both owner-customer membership and a Current account in the same OP cooperative bank.

"Due to increased inflation, higher market interest rates have, for their part, improved OP Financial Group's earnings performance. As a financial services Group owned by its customers, we utilise our good earnings for the benefit of our owner-customers by paying them 30 per cent extra on OP bonuses accumulated in 2023. In addition, we have decided that we will not charge our owner-customers for daily banking services between October 2023 and March 2024. The combined annualised value of these additional benefits for our owner-customers is over 100 million euros," said Harri Nummela, Executive Vice President, Retail Banking of OP Financial Group.

The Current account deposit rate is calculated on the lowest balance of the account based on the fixed interest rate valid at the time. The interest rate is calculated based on the lowest balance of a calendar month, and it is based on the day's closing balance.   

Interest will be paid on the Current account once a year. For example, interest for 2023 will be paid either during December 2023 or January 2024. The date of interest payment depends on the date of opening the account.

The interest rate on the Current account will take automatically effect for owner-customers as the target group on 1 November. No measures are required from customers.