The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) is working on a project to reduce the influence of Visa and Mastercard on lari transfers. NBG Vice President Ekaterine Galdava stated this at the committee meeting.
Vato Turnava, a member of the single-party parliament, was interested in how open banking would affect card commissions: "I have seen the latest statistics, VISA and Mastercard have taken hundreds of millions of lari in commissions out of the country. Will the inclusion of open banking reduce money outflow from the country?" - said Vako Turnava.
In response, Ekaterine Galdava stated that they are working on a project in this direction.
"It will take at least a year to do this, it is not an easy project. We are trying to reduce our dependence on the card business a little. We mean that the population should move to better account ownership, they should understand that using their account will be safer, and it is not necessary to have a card everywhere," said Ekaterine Galdava.
According to the National Bank of Georgia, as of February, number of VISA debit cards made up 2,583,595, while C/MC (Eurocard-Mastercard) - 4,836,057. As for credit cards, VISA stood at 111,850 and EC/MC - 100,740.
