The annual international Fact Book of the European Covered Bond Council (ECBC), which reviews current issues of the mortgage-covered bond market, published an article about the regulatory framework of mortgage-covered bonds operating in Georgia.

The publication prepared with the involvement of experts from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, offered positive feedback on the law on mortgage-covered bonds adopted by the Parliament of Georgia in 2022, as well as the regulation on mortgage-covered bonds approved by the NBG in 2023 based on it. The publication emphasizes that the regulatory framework of mortgage-covered bonds operating in Georgia is in full compliance with the requirements of the EU legislation. It is momentous that the article will be revised every year and will be published in an updated form in the Fact Books of the consequent years.

The presentation of the international edition took place at the annual global conference dedicated to mortgage-covered bonds - Euromoney/ECBC Covered Bond Congress held in Munich, Germany in September of this year. Invited by the organizers, representatives of the National Bank of Georgia also participated in the event. Georgian specialists emphasized the importance of the mortgage-covered bonds not only as investment products, but also focused on the mortgage-covered bonds as one of the instruments of risk management in the banking system. This included the potential of increasing the share of funds raised on the basis of long-term liabilities in the funding of bank loans through the mortgage-covered bonds.

The fact that the National Bank of Georgia was invited to the working group of European supervisors of mortgage-covered bonds organized by the Association of Commercial Banks Issuing German Covered Bonds (Verband deutscher Pfandbriefbanken - vdp) also testifies to the recognition of the efforts of the NBG in introducing covered bonds. The next meeting of the group, in which the NBG was represented along with the supervisory bodies of various European states, was held in Graz, Austria, on October 5 of this year, to discuss current issues of regulation and supervision of covered bonds. NBG representatives also participated in the Central European Covered Bonds Conference held in Graz. In a panel format, Georgian specialists shared Georgia’s experience related to the development of the framework of covered bonds to the audience.