Natia Turnava, the Acting Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, delivered a welcome speech at the 2nd International Consumer Rights Week event. She underscored the National Bank's steadfast dedication to safeguarding consumer rights as a primary focus, given its role as the financial sector's regulator. Natia Turnava also recognized the Bank's longstanding active involvement in consumer protection efforts.
Natia Turnava, the Acting Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, stated, "Through the NBG's organization and the participation of financial institutions, we have accumulated 13 years of experience in hosting public awareness events. As a result, Consumer Rights Day, and more recently the Week, has been celebrated with the active engagement of the National Bank of Georgia. Our focus has been twofold: implementing best practices for consumer rights protection and enhancing the financial education of consumers. I am delighted that this event has become an annual tradition, serving as a valuable platform for raising consumer awareness about their rights."
During her address, Turnava discussed the regulatory framework established by the Central Bank, which includes adjustments to customer relationship formats and the introduction of responsible lending principles. She mentioned the creation of a market behavior supervision direction in 2023 and its ongoing development. Turnava also pointed out the regulation on protecting consumer rights, which sets high standards for transparency and information disclosure for financial organizations, among other requirements. Further, she noted that the regulation is recurrently being amended based on the challenges in the sector and customer feedback.
"The key principle of the regulatory framework for protecting consumer rights in the financial sector is to provide correct and unambiguous information to consumers, enabling them to make more informed financial decisions. This fosters the creation of more transparent and customer-oriented products in the market, leading to a more competitive environment," noted Natia Turnava.
The National Bank of Georgia's Consumer Rights Protection Department includes a Customer Inquiries Response Division that actively manages and addresses customer inquiries on a daily basis. Turnava observed a rising trend in consumer inquiries, attributed to heightened consumer awareness. She acknowledged the ongoing challenge of comprehensively understanding and processing information. To tackle this issue, the NBG established a dedicated Financial Education Department in 2023.
During the II International Consumer Rights Week, an updated cooperation memorandum was signed between the National Bank of Georgia and the Georgian Competition and Consumer Rights Protection Agency. This memorandum aims to strengthen cooperation between the agencies in the areas of competition policy and consumer rights protection, providing more flexible and effective cooperation mechanisms.
The II International Consumer Rights Week events will take place on March 11-15 in Tbilisi, Gurjaani, Kutaisi, and Batumi. The week aims to raise public awareness and strengthen consumer rights understanding.
