In June 2014, Georgia took an important step towards eventual EU membership with the signature of a formal association agreement, which entered into force in 2016. This provides for Georgia to enter into a DCFTA (Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area) in order to integrate its economy into the EU’s internal market, with the goal of eventual full EU membership. Association agreements with Georgia and Ukraine were signed at the same time.
Under the DCFTA process, with EU support, Georgia will undertake work on domestic reforms in areas such as the judicial system and anti-corruption measures. The process also requires Georgian banks to adopt EU standards of governance, but in this respect, Georgia has already made significant strides.
Bank of Georgia and TBC Bank, the two biggest banks, are listed on the London stock exchange (Bank of Georgia since February 2012 and TBC following its IPO in June 2014) and comply fully with EU regulations.
Another advantage possessed by Georgia in its alignment with the EU is its relatively open economy under the government’s long-standing espousal of free market principles.
In terms of digital banking and payment usage, Georgia lags behind other countries in the Eurasian region, due to sparse telecom infrastructure. However, the influence of foreign banking groups who have ownership stakes in several Georgian banks is helping the sector to modernise and digitise many banking processes. An interesting anomaly is that Georgian consumers are prolific users of contactless payments, which comprise over 90% of in-store payments.
At the same time, the National Bank of Georgia is proactively developing regulations to harmonise and standardise payment service provision, including Open Banking to encourage financial inclusion. The NBG is also exploring the use of a central bank digital currency and has engaged with multiple entities to study how this might be implemented.
Mobile banking transactions have overtaken internet banking transactions in number, and it’s likely that mobile
STATISTICAL KEY FIGURES FOR 2021 PROVIDED IN THIS PROFILE:
NEW in 2023:
- The full impact of COVID-19 on digital payments, card payments, e-commerce and m-commerce by market.
- Real-time payments infrastructure and growth statistics by market.
- Open Banking infrastructure, API roll-out, key players and key initiatives by market.
- Contactless and mobile payments statistics by market.
- Cryptocurrency, stablecoin and CBDC initiatives by market.
- Full update on bank channel digitisation by market.
- Forecasting column added for all the major tables.
- Reader-friendly design with enhanced data visualisation.
- Industry developments and bank deployments of eID, biometrics and AI.
- The integration of digital challengers and neobanks into the banking infrastructure.
Updates For 2022-23:
- Updated - Bank M&As, restructuring and market positioning. Customer number KPIs and adoption of digital channel KPIs.
- Updated - Mobile banking apps and digital wallet initiatives.
- Updated - PSPs by individual country.
- Updated - Real-time payments uptake and QR code payments rollout.
- Updated - Card fraud in Europe and by individual country.
- Updated - Non-bank cards and co-brands.
- Highlighting the new trends in the payment industry by individual country:
- Contactless, mobile NFC, QR code, mPOS, SoftPOS services
- Display cards, contactless ATMs, biometric authentication
- Digital wallets, in-app payments, mobile in-store payments
- Instant payments
- eID initiatives
Cryptocurrency and CBCD initiatives
- Updated: tables with card business data 2017-2021; growth rates: Y-o-Y, CAGR + Forecasting column
- Population, Cards per Capita, Card Value per Capita
- Debit Cards, Credit/Delayed Debit Cards, Total Cards
- Card payments by number and by value, ATV per card, payments per card/year
- ATMs, POS terminals, ATMs/POS terminals per 1 million capita
- ATM withdrawals by number/by value, ATV per withdrawal, TXs per ATM/month
- POS payments by number/by value, ATV per POS payment, TXs per POS/month
- Internet Use, e-payment mix, B2C e-Commerce by value and growth rate
- Issued Card brands by individual major issuer bank
- Accepted card brands by individual major acquirer
- Drill down into the debit card use and credit cards use details
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Digital product provided in PDF format. You will receive a download link to a zip file containing your files after checkout.
Methodology
The publisher's research is collated over a year from Primary sources across all European and Eurasian markets. They use the ECB, BIS as well as annual reports from the European banks and listed companies, consulting platforms and major accounting firms along with a combined 100 years of experience in the payments industry analysing and commenting on the data.
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