Oma-säästöpanki, a Finnish bank, has recently faced two ambiguities in a short period of time. Firstly, it is suspected that a gross embezzlement has taken place over several years. The CEO of the bank, Pasi Sydänlammi, revealed that the damage incurred by the bank due to the suspected crimes is around EUR 150,000. A former employee of the bank has been charged with gross embezzlement and forgery, with the crimes allegedly occurring between February 2019 and October 2023.
In a separate incident, the bank issued a profit warning due to a violation of lending guidelines that led to a provision of EUR 19.5 million in its first-quarter result. These losses were attributed to activity contrary to the bank’s lending guidelines that were discovered at the end of the first quarter. Despite this warning, CEO Sydänlammi clarified that the misconduct in the district court is not connected to the profit warning. The stock of Oma-säästöpanki fell over 14% on the Helsinki stock exchange following the profit warning.
The recent events have brought attention to the financial health of the bank and raised concerns about its internal control processes. As such, investors are eagerly awaiting Oma-säästöpanki’s first-quarter interim report, which is expected to shed light on its credit risks and provide further details regarding recent incidents.
