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This is the first of a two-case series (303-225-1 and 303-226-1). Skopbank was the leading financial institution in Finland; the 264 savings banks and their central bank - Skopbank - constituted the Skopbank Group. While the constituent savings banks had historically concentrated on retail banking, the central bank, Skopbank, concentrated on small and medium-sized corporate customers and also engaged in some international operations. Historically, the Finnish financial system had been tightly regulated with controls on interest rates and prices for financial services. Following the first wave of deregulation in 1970, savings banks were permitted to broaden their scope from retail banking to include some corporate and international banking. The second wave of deregulation in the early eighties removed interest and price caps and interest rates started to reflect supply and demand conditions in credit markets. These changes in conjunction with rapid globalisation and integration of financial markets put tremendous pressure on the Finnish financial system. Though creating a great deal of turbulence and uncertainty for financial institutions, deregulation also opened up a world of possibilities.