In cooperation with the National Bank of Georgia, the rating agency Moody’s hosted an international conference in Tbilisi focused on Georgia’s macroeconomic outlook, current trends in the banking sector, and the development of the covered bond market.

Moody’s analysts, together with Deputy Minister of Finance Ekaterine Guntsadze and David Utiashvili, Head of the Financial Stability Department of the National Bank of Georgia, discussed the foundations of Georgia’s sovereign rating and the country’s macroeconomic prospects. The conference also reviewed ongoing trends in the Georgian banking sector and provided an overview of Moody’s methodology for rating covered bonds.

In the concluding part of the event, a panel discussion moderated by Moody’s examined the development of the covered bond market as a new funding instrument for commercial banks. Participants included David Abesadze, Head of the Securities Market Supervision Department at the National Bank of Georgia; David Talakhadze, Deputy Chief Financial Officer of TBC Bank; and Levan Shavkatsishvili, Member of the Investment Board of the Pension Fund.

The panelists discussed the measures undertaken by the public and private sectors to establish the covered bond market and the progress achieved so far, as well as the next steps ahead. Among other initiatives, they highlighted an ongoing project supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the National Bank of Georgia, which will assist Georgian commercial banks in introducing the necessary software to issue covered bonds. As noted by the panelists, the joint efforts of the involved stakeholders are laying a solid foundation for the inaugural issuance of covered bonds in Georgia.

The international conference “Georgia’s Sovereign, Banking, and Covered Bond Briefing” was attended by representatives of the Georgian financial sector and international guests interested in the topic.