The following list of banks in Estonia is to be understood within the framework of the European single market and European banking union, which means that the Estonian banking system is more open to cross-border banking operations than peers outside of the EU. The list leaves aside the country's National Central Bank within the Eurosystem, the Bank of Estonia.
European banking supervision distinguishes between significant institutions (SIs) and less significant institutions (LSIs), with SI/LSI designations updated regularly by the European Central Bank (ECB). Significant institutions are directly supervised by the ECB using joint supervisory teams that involve the national competent authorities (NCAs) of individual participating countries. Less significant institutions are supervised by the relevant NCA on a day-to-day basis, under the supervisory oversight of the ECB. [1] In Estonia's case, the NCA is the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority. [2]
As of 1 September 2025, the ECB had three Estonian banking groups in its list of significant institutions: [3]
The Estonian affiliate of Swedbank is a direct subsidiary of Swedbank Baltics, the latter being an entity based in Riga and thus listed in the Latvian section of the ECB's list. A study published in 2024 found that it had a similar amount of assets in Estonia as Luminor (slightly above €15 billion each at end-2023), ahead of SEB (8.6 billion) and LHV (6.4 billion). [4] No other SIs based in the euro area have subsidiaries in Estonia. [3]
As of 1 September 2025, the ECB's list of supervised institutions included six Estonian LSIs, three of which were designated by the ECB as "high-impact" on the basis of several criteria including size: [3]
The three other Estonian LSIs were:
Estonia is one of six euro-area countries with credit unions, together with Croatia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. Estonian credit unions (Estonian : hoiu-laenuühistute) are small cooperative credit institutions outside the scope of the EU Capital Requirements Directives, [6] and thus regulated and supervised under national law. At end-2023, there were 26 such Estonian credit unions with total assets of ca. €143 million (US$155 million). [7] : 4
Foreign bank branches in Estonia include those of Citadele Banka, Nordea, OP Financial Group, and PayEx, the latter a Swedish firm that is part of the Swedbank Group. [8] [9]
A few former Estonian banks, defined as having been headquartered in the present-day territory of Estonia, are documented on Wikipedia. They are listed below in chronological order of establishment.