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Chairman of the Board of Coop Pank Margus Rink emphasized that, as a domestic bank, Coop Pank has an obligation and a mission to help preserve Estonia’s freedom and strengthen our defence capability: “Estonia’s defence capability is based on the army reserve, which includes 90 thousand reservists. Businesses and individuals – we can all do our part to strengthen our will to protect the country, provide reservists with the training they need and support their readiness to act.”

Rink noted that Coop Pank helps strengthen defence capabilities by encouraging its employees to participate in reservist training and maintaining their regular salaries during the exercises, but now the bank wants to take the next step by encouraging customers to help and making its own contribution to the Reservists Fund.

“We invite all our clients who value Estonia and our freedom to join the Kaardivägi program,” said Rink. A client who has joined the program contributes 1 cent from each card payment to the Reservists Fund, to which Coop Pank then adds another 1 cent.

Coop Pank has 189,000 everyday banking clients. For example, a person who makes 30 card payments per month or one payment daily by connecting to the Kaardivägi program will donate an average of 30 cents per month, or 3.6 euros per year, to Estonia’s national defence. Together with the Coop Pank contribution, 7.2 euros are to be paid annually to the Reservists Fund for one such client.

“While most customers won’t even notice that 30-cent monthly contribution, but when we consider the card payments of all customers combined with the bank’s own contribution it all adds up to a significant amount. For example, if half of our clients, that is 90,000 people, join the Kaardivägi program, together we will donate more than half a million euros to strengthen Estonia’s defence capabilities – and this is already a significant contribution,” emphasized Margus Rink.

On April 19, Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur and Chairman of the Board of the National Defence Promotion Foundation Toomas Luman signed a memorandum of cooperation, on the basis of which the Reservists Fund was created.

According to the head of the Defence Forces, General Martin Herem, Coop Pank is one of the first companies that, in order to collect donations for the fund, launched a special product, which allows the company, together with its clients, to invest in the security of Estonia: “The goal of the Reservists Fund is to support the national defence of Estonia and reservists through voluntary donations, as well as to increase our combat effectiveness. The Reservists Fund supports the participation of Estonian reservists in long-term training, the acquisition of special equipment, the strengthening of the sense of cohesion among reservists, as well as allows us to recognize the best reservists and the best reserve units.”

Both Margus Rink and Martin Herem encourage Estonian businesses to think about the possibilities of their services and products in order to contribute to strengthening the national defence capabilities of Estonia together with their customers. “The Reservists Fund is an extremely important initiative of the Ministry of Defence, and all Estonian residents and entrepreneurs can contribute to raising funds for the fund,” added Rink.

To join Kaardivägi, a Coop Pank client can link his bank card to the program in the mobile application or in the Internet bank. New clients can also join by opening a current account with Coop Pank. When the card is linked to the program, 1 cent from each payment will be sent to the Reservists Fund, and then the bank will additionally contribute another 1 cent. Donations are exempt from income tax, are automatically reported on the person’s tax return, and income tax from the donations is refunded. The client can withdraw from the Kaardivägi program at any time.