Parliament approves bill removing banking supervisory function from NBG

Georgia’s Parliament has passed the bill envisaging a banking supervisory function to be removed from the country’s National Bank.

The amendments to the "Law on the National Bank of Georgia” (NBG) were adopted at its third hearing with 80 votes in favour and 19 against yesterday.

The bill will see the NBG have no more banking monitoring service; this function will be transferred to a separate agency, which will be the solo body to supervise banking in the country.

The bill also defined the rules of setting up such an agency, which will be called Georgia’s Financial Monitoring Agency.

Meanwhile the bill was criticised by President Giorgi Margvelashvili who said there was no "proper reason” provided by legislators that would explain why this change was actually needed.

Margvelashvili also believed this new initiative needed to be approved by European experts before it was implemented. Thus, he said he could veto the bill.