Georgia to study the possibility of issuing a national digital currency

The National Bank of Georgia will consider issuing a digital lari. This is stated in the regulator’s public заявлении.

CBDC will obtain the status of legal tender. The central bank expects the project to boost the efficiency of the domestic payment system and financial inclusion.

The regulator called on technology, fintech firms and other financial institutions to collaborate on developing the digital Georgian lari. The regulator may create a regulatory ‘sandbox’ or testing environment for the CBDC project.

The eventual solution should be easy to use, support the deployment of smart contracts and automated payments, including ‘automatic tax accounting and tax collection for simple transactions’, the regulator notes.

The National Bank of Georgia emphasised the need for CBDC to comply with FATF directives on anti-money laundering and European data-protection rules, as well as the ability to collect statistics without de-anonymising users.

Earlier, National Bank of Kazakhstan also announced plans to issue a CBDC.

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