Papuna Lezhava, NBG Vice Governor, said: "The National Bank of Georgia promotes the development of financial technologies and a number of projects are being implemented in this area. This project that we signed with the IFC is important both for the NBG and for startup and fintech companies involved in financial technologies".
Ivana Fernandes Duarte, IFC's Regional Manager for the South Caucasus, said: “In Georgia, implementing open banking can help modernize and strengthen the country's financial market. It can encourage the growth of the fintech sector, attract international investment, and enhance financial services for both individuals and businesses. We, at IFC, are excited to work with the National Bank of Georgia in this area to support Georgia's broader digitalization efforts in line with the global trends in financial technology.”

Technical sandbox provides an opportunity to test services using Application Programming Interfaces (API) needed to create innovative financial products in a real test environment.

Within the framework of the technical sandbox, the National Bank of Georgia and IFC will allow the participants to go through the capabilities of two pre-selected Open Banking APIs in a test environment and use them to try to create innovative and interesting financial products.
The estimated duration of the project is 22 weeks. The decision on APIs selected for the technical sandbox will be made by the National Bank of Georgia, together with IFC, within three weeks after the start of the project. Next, any interested party will have the opportunity to contact the Open Banking Group - ob@nbg.gov.ge or the Innovation Office - innovationoffice@nbg.gov.ge. Detailed information regarding the acceptance of applications will be published on the NBG website.