HELSINKI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Finnish bank Nordea on Thursday posted a third-quarter operating profit on par with estimates on the back of increased service fees and low loan losses.

Third-quarter operating profit rose to 1.27 billion euros ($1.48 billion) from 1.09 billion a year ago, meeting the 1.27 billion mean estimate of 8 analysts polled by Refinitiv. ($1 = 0.8581 euros) (Reporting by Essi Lehto; editing by Niklas Pollard)