NBG’s Varlam Ebanoidze: International recognition places NBG at the vanguard of financial innovation and affirms its regional hub ambitions

“The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has earned international acclaim for its distinctive approach to promoting competition and innovation, which is a milestone that reasserts the country’s ambition to develop its financial sector and establish itself as a regional hub,” declared Varlam Ebanoidze, Head of the NBG’s Financial and Supervisory Technology Development Department.

According to Ebanoidze, the award represents global validation of the NBG’s unique strategy, which is rooted in fostering competition and innovation.

“Regulators in other jurisdictions typically employ blunter intervention mechanisms when dealing with concentrated markets like Georgia’s banking sector; we, however, achieved our initial tangible results through so-called non-surgical methods,” Varlam Ebanoidze noted.

He further assessed that the Regulatory Sandbox, which allows emerging companies to test technologies in a live environment, played a pivotal role in achieving these outcomes alongside the Open Banking infrastructure, which created alternative mechanisms for payments and data exchange.

According to Ebanoidze, the combination of these tools facilitated the entry of new market players. He noted that fintech companies have been able to launch operations in online currency conversion and QR payments, while smaller banks have gained additional scope to attract customers through new technologies.

“All of this truly places the National Bank of Georgia at the vanguard of innovation not only within the region, but beyond it, and demonstrates through concrete action our ambition to serve as a regional hub,” Varlam Ebanoidze stated.

For context, the National Bank of Georgia won the Excellence in Innovation–Open Banking & Regulatory Sandbox Ecosystem Georgia 2026 accolade at the Global Banking & Finance Awards® 2026, hosted by the international publication Global Banking & Finance Review. According to the NBG, the award marks global recognition of its work to pioneer financial innovation, roll out open banking, and develop its Regulatory Sandbox.