Georgia was elected as the chair country of the year 2022 at the annual conference of the Group of Banking Supervisors from Central and Eastern Europe (BSCEE) on May 27-28, 2021. Papuna Lezhava, Vice President of the National Bank of Georgia will take the position of the Chairman of the Group starting from December 16, 2021. In 2022, the BSCEE Group Conference will be held in Tbilisi.

Vice President Lezhava was invited to speak at this year's conference and share Georgia's experience in the circumstances of the pandemic. In his presentation, Vice President discussed supervisory priorities in the post-pandemic period. Vice President Lezhava provided a detailed description of the actions taken by the National Bank in response to the pandemic challenges and discussed the supervisory priorities that are optimal for the post-pandemic period.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented shock/challenge; its impact is still not over. These challenges have enabled us to draw important conclusions: constant preparedness for the crisis is a necessary precondition for maintaining the stability of the financial sector. The pandemic has shown the crucial role that Fintech has to play: while the development of financial services, innovation and competition were previously seen as the avenues of Fintech expansion, the pandemic has now put forward Fintech's potential for promoting financial stability," Papuna Lezhava, Vice President of the National Bank of Georgia, stated.

Bringing together 25 member countries, the BSCEE is committed to promote close cooperation between the banking supervisors, supervised entities and organizations of the countries within the group.