Estonia: Former Kredex CEO Lehar Kutt joins Coop Pank

TALLINN - Lehar Kutt, former chairman of the management board of the Kredex foundation, started work in Coop Pank on Monday where he is in charge of the corporate banking financing business line.

Kutt, who left Kredex in October last year, said that he decided to join Coop Pank because he wants to contribute to the bank's development, Coop said.

Arko Kurtmann, head of corporate banking and management board member at Coop Pank, said in a press release that he holds Kutt's management experience and knowledge of the field in high regard. Kurtmann added that Kutt will also have a significant role in fulfilling one of Coop Pank's five strategic goals which is increasing the bank's loan portfolio to one billion euros already before the end of 2022.

Kutt was CEO of the state-run Kredex foundation and chairman of the supervisory board of credit insurer Kredex Krediidikindlustus from 2015 to 2020. He was a member of the supervisory board of AS Smartcap from 2016 to 2020 and has been a member of the management board of the finance sector's representative organization FinanceEstonia since 2015. From 2021, he is also a member of the supervisory board of the Estonian Aviation Cluster.

He holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Tartu and a master's degree in technology governance and digital transformation from the Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech).

Coop Pank, based on Estonian capital, is one of five universal banks operating in Estonia. The number of clients using Coop Pank for their daily banking totals 100,200. The strategic shareholder of the bank is the domestic retail chain Coop Eesti, the network of which is made up of 330 stores.