Oma Säästöpankki Oyj - The Full Story

A six-part investigative series on the events inside the bank

Listen to the phone recording

Listen to the published phone recording here – Talouselämä journalist Taneli Koponen, Heini and Sami Minkkinen discuss the raid carried out by the National Bureau of Investigation (KRP), and Taneli Koponen reveals what has been happening inside Oma Säästöpankki's vaults.

What is this about?

This is a summary article of previously published, more extensive exposés, telling the truth behind Oma Säästöpankki. There is far more we could write — the material in our possession is massive — but for the time being we are holding back further revelations so as not to jeopardise the ongoing criminal investigations.

Oma Säästöpankki Oyj is Finland's largest savings bank. Its share price collapsed by roughly 50 per cent during 2024. Behind the collapse lies a tangled web that stretches from vanished documents all the way to the highest levels of the Finnish state.

In June 2024, CEO Pasi Sydänlammi was dismissed. The general meeting refused to grant him discharge from liability. The bank contested his severance package of over €2 million.

In December 2025, three board members were charged with misuse of inside information.

But the story began much earlier.

This article series is based on phone recordings, emails, WhatsApp messages, foundation financial statements and public sources. It reveals:

• How documents vanished from the bank's cash vaults while investigations were underway
• How a former deputy CEO sold shares he had owned to customers, financed by the bank itself
• How five foundations control 60 per cent of the bank through a closed circle
• How a €10 million indemnity agreement was signed 27 days before the CEO was dismissed
• How €20 million in dividends were withdrawn at record levels just before the crisis erupted
• How dismissed executives continue to serve in roles within the owner foundations

Publications

1. Release of background materials

8.12.2025 | Read the article

This is where it all started for us. Immediately after the article was published, we received a takedown request, which has since been included in the article itself. The question is: why should the truth be removed?

We published a phone recording from 10 November 2025 in which Talouselämä journalist Taneli Koponen describes what has happened inside OmaSp's vaults. The recording reveals that hundreds of critical loan decision documents have vanished from the bank's vaults at its Seinäjoki branch.

Documents that should absolutely have been preserved.

The question: Who has access to the bank's vaults? And why have documents disappeared while the bank was already under investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation and the Financial Supervisory Authority?

2. Pasi Turtio, Antti Korpela and the property deals

9.12.2025 | Read the article

In October 2021, former deputy CEO Pasi Turtio personally initiated a transaction in which he sold us shares in a company where he himself had been an owner. The bank financed the deal with a €1 million loan. The estimated loss to the parties involved: approximately €4.3 million.

When we reported a shortfall in collateral, the missing collateral was "found" overnight — over €700,000 worth.

The article includes a voice message, emails, WhatsApp messages and payment receipts. It also reveals a chain of connections that extends all the way to a board member of Alexander Stubb Global Oy.

3. A structure that does not ask questions

10.12.2025 | Read the article

The same pattern recurs in every historic banking scandal: a bank that does not ask questions. Does not ask who truly owns the assets. Does not ask where the money comes from. Does not ask why millions are moving.

This article compares the YBM Magnex and Bank of New York scandals with the Financial Supervisory Authority's findings on OmaSp. The regulator found deficiencies "of very high significance" in customer due diligence, beneficial owner identification and source-of-funds verification.

The comparison is alarming: the structural failures at Oma Säästöpankki are nearly identical to those of historic money laundering scandals.

4. When money crosses borders

11.12.2025 | Read the article

Concealment can work domestically, but money does not stay within borders. Every international transaction leaves traces in systems that Finnish authorities do not control.

This article maps the exposure routes: the SWIFT system, correspondent banks, the EU's new AMLA authority, FATF evaluations and whistleblower channels.

The conclusion: This is not a question of whether the truth will come out. This is a question of when and how — and how large an international reputational blow Finland's financial system is willing to absorb in this case.

5. Power that appoints itself

17.12.2025 | Read the article

For seven years, the same core group has sat on OmaSp's nomination committee: five individuals representing the five largest owner foundations.

One of them, Jyrki Mäkynen, simultaneously served as the bank's vice chairman of the board, a member of the Bank of Finland's Payment Council, and chairman of the Federation of Finnish Enterprises.

Two of them, Ari and Aino Lamminmäki, are most likely a married couple, yet their relationship has never been disclosed in the bank's official documents. Together they control 40 per cent of the nomination committee's voting power.

And the dismissed CEO, Pasi Sydänlammi? He still manages the investments of one of the owner foundations.

6. The five foundations' agreement

18.12.2025 | Read the article

On 23 May 2024, the five largest owner foundations signed a €10 million indemnity agreement for the bank's board members.

Exactly 27 days later, the CEO was dismissed.

That same spring, the same foundations withdrew record dividends from the bank: approximately €20 million in total, compared to €9 million the previous year.

That same year, the foundations' OmaSp holdings lost €212 million in value.

This article is based on the foundations' publicly available financial statements. It reveals the indemnity agreement's calculation formula, the dramatic surge in dividends, and a 2021 KPMG training session that addressed liability for damages and related-party issues.

Key individuals

Owner foundations

Timeline

What does this mean?

When the same individuals appoint the board, decide on dividends, withdraw those dividends for themselves before the bank slides into crisis, and commit to financially protecting the board — this is no longer normal listed-company governance.

This is power that appoints itself and protects itself, along with its own interest groups.

And when documents vanish from vaults, nobody asks too many questions — because everyone has something to lose.

Who ultimately bears the cost?

Small business owners like us, who trust that as bank customers we will receive the best, safest, most honest and most reliable banking service in all our dealings. It hardly occurs to anyone, at any point, that a bank or any member of its staff could participate in misconduct and deliberate deception. Yet it can happen — and it happened to us.

The saddest thing to realise afterwards is that very few parties have any interest in uncovering the truth, and more often than not the burden falls on the victim. That is why these articles exist — so the truth does not stay hidden.

All articles contain original sources, downloadable documents and archived versions.

Updated: 13.1.2026