OP Yrityspankki Oyj - Changes board/management/auditors

Timo Ritakallio to be appointed OP Financial Group's new President and Group Executive Chairman as Reijo Karhinen retires

OP Corporate Bank plc
OP Cooperative
Stock Exchange Release
20 September 2017 at 6.00 pm

Timo Ritakallio to be appointed OP Financial Group's new President and Group
Executive Chairman as Reijo Karhinen retires

On 20 September 2017, the Supervisory Board of OP Financial Group's central
cooperative appointed Timo Ritakallio, 55, OP Financial Group's new President
and Group Executive Chairman. In terms of degree, Ritakallio is LL.M, MBA and
D.Sc. (Tech.). He will take up his duties in March 2018. Along with the
appointment, Timo Ritakallio will also become Chair of OP Corporate Bank plc's
Board of Directors. Reijo Karhinen, who has served as OP Financial Group's
President and Group Executive Chairman since 2007, will, based on his executive
contract, retire when he turns 63 in January 2018.

Timo Ritakallio will come from Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company where
he was Deputy CEO between 2008 and 2014 and has acted as President and CEO since
2015. Before his employment at Ilmarinen, Ritakallio has had a long career in
various executive positions at OP Financial Group.

- Timo Ritakallio will bring an enormous amount of the expertise and insight
that will disappear in OP Financial Group's management when Reijo Karhinen, who
has headed OP Financial Group with distinction for the last decade, retires,
states Jaakko Pehkonen, Chair of the Supervisory Board.

- Ritakallio's strategic thinking, management skills and extensive networks as
well as his broad experience in OP Financial Group played a pronounced role in
the selection of a new President and Group Executive Chairman. His CEO
experience, especially in wealth management, international financing and Finnish
business as well as corporate reinvention processes, is an advantage when we
move towards the 2020s of OP Financial Group. I am extremely confident about the
fact that the success and reinvention created during the last 10-year period of
Karhinen's directorship will also continue under directorship of the new
President and Group Executive Chairman, continues Pehkonen.

- OP Financial Group has shown excellent performance during the last few years
and has a solid financial standing. The financial sector is undergoing a drastic
transformation and OP Financial Group is transforming to a more diversified
services provider as a result of its strategy. I am eager yet humble to take up
my duties as President and Group Executive Chairman while recognising the
challenges that we will together with personnel face in the years to come, says
Timo Ritakallio, the future President and Group Executive Chairman of OP
Financial Group.

Tony Vepsäläinen, Deputy to President and Group Executive Chairman and Vice
Chair of the Executive Board, will act as President and Group Executive Chairman
between the time when Karhinen retires and the time when Timo Ritakallio takes
up his duties as the new President and Group Executive Chairman.

OP Corporate Bank plc
OP Cooperative
Carina Geber-Teir
Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications

For more information:
Jaakko Pehkonen, Chair of the Supervisory Board of OP Financial Group's Central
Cooperative
Any requests for interviews via OP Communications Wed. 20 September, 6.00 pm-
7,30 pm and Thu. 21 September, 7 am -7,30 pm:
tel. +358 (0)50 523 9904, viestinta@op.fi

Distribution
Nasdaq Helsinki
LSE London Stock Exchange
SIX Swiss Exchange
Major media
op.fi and pohjola.com

OP Financial Group is Finland's largest financial services group whose mission
is to create sustainable prosperity, security and wellbeing for its owner-
customers and in its operating region by means of its strong capital base and
efficiency. OP Financial Group consists of about 170 member cooperative banks,
its central cooperative OP Cooperative, and the latter's subsidiaries and
affiliates. The Group has a staff of 12,000 and some 1.8 million owner-customers
and 4.4 million customers. www.op.fi

OP Corporate Bank and OP Mortgage Bank are responsible for OP's funding in money
and capital markets. As laid down in the applicable law, OP Corporate Bank, OP
Mortgage Bank and their parent company OP Cooperative and other OP Financial
Group member credit institutions are ultimately jointly and severally liable for
each other's debts and commitments. OP Corporate Bank acts as OP's central bank.


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Attachments:

Timo Ritakallio_image.jpg

Timo Ritakallio_CV.pdf