Audit
The General Meeting of OP Corporate Bank elects an audit firm chartered by the Finland Chamber of Commerce to act as the auditor. The auditors’ term of office is the financial year during which they were elected, ending upon the closing of the next Annual General Meeting after their election.
The Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board of OP Cooperative, OP Corporate Bank plc’s parent entity, puts audit services out to tender at some five years’ interval (last time in 2018) on the basis of which it proposes eligible auditors to OP Cooperative’s Annual Cooperative Meeting to act as auditors for the entire OP Cooperative Consolidated. The Supervisory Board’s Audit Committee annually assesses the quality of the auditor’s performance and ancillary services and the independence of auditors and the statement of the ancillary services.
The auditors are tasked with auditing the accounting, internal control, accounting policies, management accounting judgements, presentation and structure of the financial statements of the company and its entities in order to obtain assurance that the financial statements of the Group and its entities have been prepared in compliance with the rules and regulations in force governing the preparation of financial statements and give the company’s shareholders and other stakeholders a true and fair view of the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the Group.
KPMG Oy Ab, a firm of authorised public accountants, acted as the company’s auditor in 2019 with Juha-Pekka Mylén, APA, acting as the chief auditor, appointed by KPMG Oy Ab. KPMG Oy Ab has acted as the company’s auditor since 2002 and Juha-Pekka Mylén as chief auditor since 2019. The audit firm KPMG Oy Ab and chief auditors appointed by KPMG Oy Ab acted as auditor of OP Corporate Bank Group’s subsidiaries.
OP Corporate Bank Group has used KPMG Oy Ab’s advisory services related mainly to the comfort letters of bond programmes and tax counselling.
In 2019, audit fees in OP Corporate Bank Group for audit paid to auditors totalled EUR 337,000 (250,000), whereas fees for assignments as referred to in chapter 1, section 1, sub-section 1, paragraph 2 of the Auditing Act were EUR 11,000 (17,000), those for tax counselling EUR 158,000 (10,000) and for other services EUR 178,000 (104,000). The corresponding figures for 2018 are shown in brackets. Non-audit services rendered by KPMG Oy Ab totalled EUR 154,000 (excl. VAT).
Supervision by the central cooperative
OP Corporate Bank belongs to the amalgamation of deposit banks, under applicable laws. The amalgamation comprises OP Cooperative as the central cooperative together with its member credit institutions and financial institutions and service companies over which they exercise control. OP Cooperative controls the amalgamation’s operations and provides the companies within the amalgamation with guidelines on the qualitative requirements for safeguarding their liquidity and capital adequacy, as well as guidelines for their risk management, good corporate governance and internal control. The central cooperative may also confirm general principles to be followed by the member credit institutions in operations relevant to the amalgamation.
In addition, the central cooperative supervises its member credit institutions in the manner as referred to in the Act on the Amalgamation of Deposit Banks. In its operations, the Group takes account of OP Financial Group’s strategy, confirmed by OP Cooperative’s Supervisory Board, and regulations and guidelines on risk management and other operations issued by OP Cooperative to the member banks. The Group reports to OP Cooperative in a separately agreed manner.
Regulatory supervision
The Group is supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority and the European Central Bank as prescribed in the laws governing financial and insurance markets. The company’s operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are supervised when applicable by the respective national regulators.