Get to know MuniFin

Our core mandate is to ensure that our customers have access to affordable financing under all market and social conditions, including extraordinary circumstances.

We offer financing to environmentally sustainable and socially responsible projects, such as schools, day-care centres, public transport, hospitals, health centres and affordable social housing. Our work helps secure Finland’s operational reliability and boost sustainable development.

MuniFin was originally established to ensure that the Finnish municipal sector has access to affordable financing. Over the years, this core mandate has been expanded to also cover the financing of affordable social housing organisations and wellbeing services counties.

Our customers include Finnish mainland municipalities, joint municipal authorities, wellbeing services counties, joint county authorities and corporate entities under their control, and non-profit organisations and projects nominated by the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland (Ara).

We find it important to increase sustainable investments. To do so, we offer particularly impactful projects sustainable finance, which is a more affordable option than a regular loan or lease financing. Of our sustainable finance products, green finance is aimed at investments that are especially friendly for the climate and environment, whereas social finance is aimed at investments that produce widespread social benefits.

MuniFin’s lending – i.e. our customer financing – is founded on regular promissory note loans, whose terms and conditions are not materially different from loans offered by banks. However, we can often offer longer loan maturities than banks.

We acquire our funding from the international capital markets mainly as issuances under debt programmes.

Our funding is guaranteed by the Municipal Guarantee Board. Both MuniFin and the Municipal Guarantee Board’s credit ratings correspond to those of the Government of Finland. Together with our low risk profile, active and effectively diversified funding operations and excellent investor relations, this makes our funding operations highly cost-effective.

MuniFin is owned by Finnish municipalities and wellbeing services counties (53%), public sector pension provider Keva (31%) and the State of Finland (16%).

Measured by its balance sheet total, MuniFin is Finland’s third largest credit institution. Due to the size of our balance sheet total, our operations are supervised jointly by the European Central Bank and the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority. Under the Finnish Act on Credit Institutions, MuniFin is a credit institution significant for the Finnish financial system (other systemically important institution, O-SII).

MuniFin’s shareholders are represented in MuniFin’s Board of Directors.

MuniFin and the Municipal Guarantee Board together form the joint financing system of municipalities in Finland. MuniFin acquires its funding by issuing bonds in the international capital markets. MuniFin’s funding is guaranteed by the Municipal Guarantee Board, whose members consist of all the municipalities in mainland Finland. Under the joint funding system, municipalities do not guarantee each other’s loans and therefore do not carry a credit risk for the financing arrangements of other municipalities.

MuniFin’s funding operations have proved very successful also in times of crisis. Originally established to finance municipalities, the joint financing system has become an effective national funding system also for affordable social housing organisations and the recently established wellbeing services counties. It therefore plays a key role in securing Finland’s operational reliability, development opportunities and security of supply.

The Municipal Guarantee Board has set a limit for MuniFin’s long-term loans to wellbeing services counties.