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Wednesday,
July 25,
2007, #140 (1407) Out of the 18 commercial banks in Georgia, 17 managed to meet the National Bank of Georgia’s (NBG) criterion of GEL 12 million in base capital for legal operation. The sole exception was Cascade Bank Georgia, bought out by Bank of Georgia. Cascade Bank is Bank of Georgia’s third bank purchase, following its earlier acquisitions of Tbiluniveraslbank and Intellectbank, according to the newspaper Kviris Palitra. Cascade Bank was a subsidiary of Cascade Capital Holdings, in turn owned by the Cafesjian Family Foundation, a US-based Armenian concern. Cascade Bank took over the Tbilisi branch of the Greek-owned Emporiko Georgia in 2006. NBG says most commercial banks had no trouble showing base capital of at least GEL 12 million; the country’s banks had months of advance warning, and the major ones already met the requirement. Aside from Cascade Bank, only three banks—Turkish Ziraat Bank, Bank Tetri and Azerbaijani International Bank—logged some difficulty, though all managed to fulfill the base capital requirement by the deadline. NBG says it has no immediate plans for another increase to the minimum base capital for commercial banks, and the EU is satisfied by their latest regulatory tweak. |
All But One of Georgia’s Banks Make the Cut