The National Bank of Georgia is hosting the 34th annual conference of the Group of Banking Supervisors from Central and Eastern Europe (BSCEE) on December 12-13. Papuna Lezhava, Vice Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, is leading the event as Chairman of the BSCEE. The conference is the first event of the BSCEE since the onset of the pandemic, held in a hybrid mode.

 

This year’s BSCEE conference is devoted to two important topics: the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the work of central banks and the banking sector, and management of cyber risks. The participants will share with each other the stories of actions taken to reduce the negative impact of war, their experiences related to cyberattacks and management of these risks. Vice Governors of the Central Banks of Ukraine and Moldova, representatives of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Estonian and Polish financial supervision authorities are visiting the conference as speakers.

 

NBG Governor Koba Gvenetadze opened the conference and thanked Sergiy Nikolaychuk, Vice Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, for his participation in the event. "I will probably not have the opportunity to speak at the BSCEE conference in my capacity as Governor of the National Bank of Georgia. So, let me briefly recap the reforms that we have implemented at National Bank of Georgia over past 7 years. The financial system of Georgia is one of the most sustainable and developed sectors that makes considerable impact on the progress of the national economy, which, as we may all agree, is largely thanks to the right, well-timed and reasonable regulation. Georgia’s financial sector is stable, despite the most difficult period of the pandemic and the ongoing war in the region. The country has maintained its international ratings, and other things being equal, in the near future, by all current forecasts, the annual rate of inflation, which has a downward trend, will decrease further," said Koba Gvenetadze as he opened the conference.

 

Governor of the National Bank of Georgia spoke about the reforms in regulation and supervision of the non-banking sector, capital market and financial technologies.

 

Koba Gvenetadze also talked about the challenges that the financial sector had to deal with during the past years. "Today we are from 22 different countries. Still, we are seeing the same trends and challenges in our activities. One of the trends which were accelerated in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic was digitalization, both in central and commercial banks. Even though digitalization could benefit customers by improving the efficiency of services, offering new products and innovations, it also poses higher operational and cyber risks. Central banks have a crucial role in effectively managing these processes," said Governor Gvenetadze.

 

Papuna Lezhava, Vice Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, became Chairman of the Group of Banking Supervisors from Central and Eastern Europe (BSCEE) in December 16, 2021. The NBG joined the Group in 2013 and has been actively involved in the work process since then. The BSCEE brings together 25 organizations from 24 countries of Eastern and Central Europe, and promotes close cooperation between the banking supervision authorities of the member countries. According to the rules of the Group, chairing country is elected from among its members every year. Georgia was elected as the Group’s chairing country in 2018 for the first time, and on May 27-28, 2021 at the BSCEE annual conference for the second.