The National Bank of Georgia is a winner of Central Banking's Fintech & RegTech Global Awards for the second year in a row. The NBG proudly holds the trophy of best Fintech policy of the year, awarded annually to the central banks focused on modern technology innovations. Other prizes won by the National Bank in previous years were those for the most transparent central bank and the best risk manager.

In making their decision, the jury members of Central Banking, the flagship international publication, considered the National Bank's new approaches, initiatives and results achieved in technology and digitalization.

The National Bank has taken a number of successful steps to promote new technologies and develop the Fintech ecosystem. Our Fintech infrastructure projects include standardized open banking, instant payments, digital lari, and digital banking to ensure reduced fixed costs for Fintech companies. A new open regulatory framework is being developed that allows Fintech innovators to participate in the development of a supervisory framework. The Open Regulatory Framework uses several instruments:

Financial Innovation Office serves to establish an effective communication framework between financial innovation entities and National Bank of Georgia supervisors, to promote responsible innovation in the financial sector, and to guide Fintech organizations in understanding the regulatory approach. The contemporary supervisory framework is quite complex and difficult to navigate, especially for new financial startups. Therefore, it is important to encourage innovators with Fintech ideas and to help transform these ideas into a sustainable financial model.

Regulatory Laboratory allows financial sector representatives to test innovative services and products in a real-time supervised environment. Considerable attention is paid to systemic risk testing.

Digital Bank Licensing. By developing a digital banking model, the National Bank anticipates to promote: the development of innovative business models; diversity of financial products; better use of big data; development of a customized, convenient, fast and affordable digital financial ecosystem fitted to the technology infrastructure available around the customer; efficient use of cloud services; fostering integration with technology companies and developing banking as a service model in the wholesale market; the entry of new technology players and increased competition in the financial sector.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Model Management Framework. The development of an appropriate supervisory framework was prompted by the rapid spread of new methods of data science and big data. For this purpose, the National Bank of Georgia created a contemporary model risk management framework using the elements of the regulatory laboratory. Consequently, the NBG managed to create favorable environment for the sustainable development of data science methods in the financial sector.

Otar Gorgodze, Head of the NBG Department for Financial and Supervisory Technologies Development participated in the Central Banking's Summer Meeting today. In his speech, he focused on the regulation of artificial intelligence and machine learning, discussing in detail how their regulatory framework might be. "In a rapidly changing technology environment, where data are constantly growing, artificial intelligence and machine learning are used progressively. The challenge that this reality poses to regulators is how to maintain practicality. This means transforming unknown risks into familiar ones. An open supervisory approach is based on that very risk", Otar Gorgodze noted.

Founded in London in 1990, the Central Banking Publications is an independent financial media portal and publishing house. The Central Banking has a wide audience, which includes the world's central banks and financial regulators, international financial institutions and other representatives of the financial sector.

A virtual Award Ceremony was held in June as part of Central Banking Summer Meetings event, where the National Bank of Georgia participated as an award-winner in three categories.

 

Central Banking FinTech & RegTech Global Awards 2021 virtual ceremony