OP supports customers in high-risk groups with their banking services

During the coronavirus pandemic it is of primary importance to have safe access to banking and insurance services. Therefore, OP now centralises most of its services on digital channels. Some OP cooperative bank branches will offer separate service hours for customers who need special support. Certain branches have been closed temporarily for the duration of the pandemic.

A lot of customer contacts take place in OP cooperative bank branches. OP wants to enable safe banking without the risk of infection for customers in need of special support, including persons who are over 70 years old, have intellectual disabilities or are under legal guardianship. For this reason, it is important that all OP customers who are able to use self-service channels – OP-mobile, op.fi service and payment cards – favour using these services over visiting branches.

To ensure safe service for customers who require particular support, some OP cooperative banks, including OP Helsinki, OP Länsi-Suomi, OP Etelä-Karjala and OP Luumäki, will offer service hours that are dedicated to these customer groups. To learn more about these service hours, contact your own OP cooperative bank directly. Some OP cooperative bank branches have been closed temporarily until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic, and cashier services have been centralised to branches that stay open. The opening hours of OP cooperative banks can be found at op.fi.

To support access to safe banking, OP will also open a separate telephone service for customers that need special support and their family members on week commencing 23 March 2020.

“Protecting the health and wellbeing of our customers and employees is of utmost importance for us. In these exceptional circumstances, we encourage our customers to access banking and insurance services through digital channels whenever possible so that our bank branches can focus on serving customers that need special support and are in high-risk groups. We are experiencing a high volume of contacts, but we are committed to serving our customers as quickly as possible”, says Harri Nummela, Executive Vice President, Banking, Private and SME Customers at OP Financial Group.

Because of the national state of emergency declared by the Finnish Government, a maximum of ten people can be let inside the waiting rooms of bank branches simultaneously to avoid unnecessary close contacts. Therefore, branch doors may be locked during opening hours and employees will instruct customers to act in a safe manner.

Cash withdrawals can be made as usual from ATMs and at checkouts of K-food stores, Tokmanni, R-kioski stores and Neste service stations. Regular payments can be switched to direct payments, which are free of charge, and payment envelopes can be used. Local OP cooperative banks are also cooperating with care homes and home care to distribute payment envelopes.

For more information on how the coronavirus affects OP’s banking and insurance customers, please visit op.fi.

Further information to the media and requests for interviews:

OP Corporate Communications, tel. +358 50 523 9904, viestinta@op.fi

OP Financial Group is Finland's largest financial services group whose mission is to promote the sustainable prosperity, security and wellbeing of its owner-customers and its operating region. OP Financial Group consists of 143 member cooperative banks, its central cooperative OP Cooperative, and the latter's subsidiaries and affiliates. The Group has a staff of 12,000 and 2 million owner-customers. www.op.fi