The Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, Natia Turnava, held an online meeting with Fu Huang, President of the China International Payment System (CIPS).

During the meeting, the parties discussed existing and future cooperation and reviewed the progress achieved in 2025 in cooperation between Georgia’s financial sector, the National Bank of Georgia, and CIPS.

It was noted that 2025 proved to be a highly fruitful and productive year in terms of cooperation both with commercial banks and with the National Bank of Georgia. In this context, CIPS representatives conducted several working meetings and workshops for representatives of Georgia’s financial sector.

The meeting also emphasized the active cooperation of Georgian banks with CIPS in the area of payments. Notably, several Georgian commercial banks have applied for direct membership in CIPS, and their applications are currently under review.

For his part, the President of CIPS expressed readiness to continue cooperation in the coming year, both with the National Bank of Georgia in terms of further integration of payment systems and with Georgian commercial banks across various areas.

It was also noted that some Georgian banks are already connected to the CIPS payment system as indirect participants through correspondent Chinese banks. For the first time this year, the review process for applications from several Georgian commercial banks for direct membership has begun. This is expected to enhance the efficiency of cooperation and eliminate unnecessary intermediary layers in transactions conducted in renminbi (yuan).

Efforts are also underway to enable other Georgian commercial banks to benefit from this opportunity. Integration with CIPS will contribute to the diversification of cross-border payment systems used by Georgian financial institutions and will support the growing trends in trade and tourism between China and Georgia.