Natia Turnava, Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, met with representatives of the Chinese cross-border payment system CIPS on the sidelines of the largest international conference, SIBOS, organized by SWIFT in Frankfurt, to discuss the current state of cooperation.

The National Bank of Georgia launched its cooperation with CIPS in the summer of this year. At the Bank’s invitation, CIPS President Fu Huang paid an official visit to Tbilisi, where meetings were held with Georgian commercial banks. The working sessions covered the procedures and technical standards required for joining the system. Currently, several Georgian banks participate in the CIPS payment system as indirect members through correspondent Chinese banks, while efforts are underway to enable additional Georgian banks to benefit from this opportunity.

During the meeting in Frankfurt, the parties reviewed the progress achieved within the framework of ongoing cooperation and outlined future plans. Governor Turnava emphasized that China is one of Georgia’s largest trading partners. Against the backdrop of growing trade volumes and tourism flows between the two countries, she highlighted the strong potential and clear need for Georgian financial institutions to join CIPS.

It was further underlined that, through the initiative and efforts of the National Bank of Georgia, the country’s payment and settlement systems are constantly evolving. Integration into CIPS will diversify the cross-border payment systems used by Georgian financial institutions and support the growing trend of trade and tourism between China and Georgia. Membership in the system will also provide an additional channel for yuan-denominated transfers, enabling customer needs to be met more flexibly, more quickly, and at lower cost.

Notably, some Georgian banks, alongside their use of the SWIFT system, already serve as indirect participants in CIPS, processing yuan transactions through Chinese correspondent banks. In light of increasing import–export activity, Georgian commercial banks have also expressed interest in direct participation in CIPS, which would further accelerate the speed of transactions.

CIPS representatives, for their part, noted that work is underway to strengthen cooperation and expressed hope that more Georgian financial institutions will join the network in the near future.

The meeting was also attended by Natalia Chkoidze, Head of the Payment Systems Department at the National Bank of Georgia.

The CIPS network currently connects more than 4,900 financial institutions across 189 countries, including 261 in Europe, 34 in North America, 34 in South America, and 22 in Australia/Oceania. The majority of these institutions simultaneously use both SWIFT and CIPS, as well as other regional payment systems.

CIPS is primarily focused on yuan-denominated transactions, while SWIFT supports multiple currencies. Accordingly, CIPS serves as an additional, alternative payment channel and an instrument for regional diversification.