Pohjola Bank plc
Stock Exchange Release
16 February 2012 at 7.45 am

Moody's places Pohjola Bank plc's bank financial strength rating under review for possible downgrade

Moody's Investors Service has placed the stand-alone bank financial strength rating (BFSR) (C-) of Pohjola Bank plc under review for a possible downgrade.

The reassessment by Moody's applied to an extensive number of European and global banks. Reasons stated by Moody's for the reviews for rating downgrade include the deteriorated economic environment in Europe, countries' weaker creditworthiness and challenges caused by capital markets to bank funding.

In August 2011, Moody's put OP-Pohjola Group's B- BFSR, Pohjola Bank plc's Aa2 rating for long-term debt and Pohjola Insurance Ltd's insurance financial strength rating (IFSR) A2 under review for a possible downgrade.

Moody's updated its assessment of any possible downgrade. Accordingly, a possible downgrade of the ratings put under review can be expected to be one or two notches, as against one notch based on Moody's previous assessment in August.

Moody's also affirmed unchanged Pohjola Bank plc's Prime-1 short-term debt and deposit ratings. Moody's does not expect any downgrade to affect the Aaa rating for covered bonds issued by OP Mortgage Bank.

Pohjola Bank plc

Carina Geber-Teir
Chief Communications Officer

For more information, please contact
Elina Ronkanen-Minogue, Senior Vice President, Asset and Liability Management, OP-Pohjola Group, tel. +358 (0)10 252 8767
Hanno Hirvinen, Executive Vice President, tel. +358 (0)10 252 2221
Carina Geber-Teir, Chief Communications Office, tel. +358 (0)10 252 8394


DISTRIBUTION
NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd
LSE London Stock Exchange
SIX Swiss Exchange
Major media
op.fi and pohjola.com

Pohjola Bank plc is a Finnish financial services group which provides its customers with banking, non-life insurance and asset management services.Our mission is to promote the prosperity, security and wellbeing of our customers.Profitable growth and an increase in company value form our key objectives.Pohjola Group serves corporate customers in Finland and abroad by providing an extensive range of financial, investment, cash-management and non-life insurance services.We offer non-life insurance and private banking services to corporate customers.Pohjola Series A shares have been listed on the Large Cap List of the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki since 1989. The number of shareholders totals around 34,000. Pohjola's consolidated earnings before tax came to 258 million euros in 2011 and the balance sheet total amounted to 41 billion euros on 31 December 2010. Pohjola is part of OP-Pohjola Group, the leading financial services group in Finland,which has over four million customers.