The National Bank of Georgia is increasing financial penalties for currency exchange points, with stricter sanctions for compliance breaches set to take effect from September 1, 2026. The new rules increase fines for several violations and introduce higher penalties for repeated offences.
Under the updated regulation, currency exchange points will face a GEL 10,000 fine if they lack an electronic system for detecting suspicious transactions, identifying split transactions, or automatically checking customers against sanctioned and politically exposed persons lists, or if such a system has significant deficiencies.
The same penalty will apply for repeatedly failing to provide documents or information requested by the National Bank, submitting inaccurate data, or ignoring written instructions from the regulator. If such violations are repeated, the fine will increase to GEL 20,000, while other repeated breaches will result in penalties of up to GEL 5,000.
The amendments also raise fines related to sanctions compliance, customer identification, and anti-money laundering requirements. Operations involving sanctioned persons or attempts to bypass sanctions regimes will be fined GEL 7,000 per case. The changes follow several major enforcement actions by the National Bank, including a GEL 5.5 million fine imposed on currency exchange company “Valuta+” in June 2026 for thousands of violations related to customer verification and reporting requirements.
