Hungary’s OTP Group has agreed to acquire Luminor, the third-largest bank in Estonia and one of the few banking groups operating across all three Baltic states. The transaction has been estimated at approximately €1.8 billion, although the final price has not been publicly confirmed. Completion remains subject to regulatory approval, including from the European Central Bank.
The deal matters because Luminor is moving from financial-investor ownership to a strategic banking group with a long record of acquisitions and expansion across Central and Eastern Europe. OTP has generally sought strong market positions in the countries it enters and has used additional acquisitions where its initial scale was insufficient.
OTP is smaller than Swedbank and SEB by balance-sheet size, but the difference in profitability is much narrower.
| Banking group | Total assets, end-2025 | Net profit, 2025 | ROE, 2025 | Main footprint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OTP Group | ≈€118bn | €2.88bn | 21.6% | 11 markets in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia |
| Swedbank | ≈€283bn | ≈€3.0bn | 15.2% | Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania |
| SEB | ≈€339bn | ≈€2.9bn | 13.8% | Northern Europe and international corporate banking |
| Luminor | €15.9bn | €158m | 8.6% | Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania |
Luminor would increase OTP’s assets by approximately 13% and give the group an immediate platform in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. OTP also expects the acquisition to raise the euro-area share of its net loan portfolio from 42% to around 50%.
The new owner is therefore not larger than the main Swedish banking groups by assets. It is, however, a highly profitable regional consolidator whose annual earnings are already close to those of Swedbank and SEB.
For the Baltic market, the central question is not simply whether OTP can maintain Luminor’s current position. It is whether the acquisition becomes the starting point for stronger competition, further purchases and a wider restructuring of the region’s banking market.
Non-euro figures were converted approximately into euros using end-2025 exchange rates. The comparison is intended to show relative scale.