Georgia Enhances Collaboration with Ripple to Modernize Its Economy

Ripple and the National Bank of Georgia have recently joined forces to explore potential collaborations in digitizing the country’s economy.
Based in San Francisco, Ripple has broadened its partnership with Georgia’s central bank, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), with the goal of digitalizing the economy and advancing financial technology in the nation.
The partnership was unveiled during a weekend meeting attended by Ripple’s VP of CBDC, James Wallis, and two NBG officials, Natia Turnava, the acting governor of NBG, and Varlam Ebanoidze from the bank. Alistair Brown from Ripple’s partner EPAM System also participated in the meeting, emphasizing the importance of incorporating fintech solutions in the digital transformation initiative.
The meeting, as announced in a LinkedIn post on June 8, was focused on exploring opportunities for digitalizing Georgia’s economy.
This recent collaboration between NBG and Ripple builds upon their previous partnership, which was initiated towards the end of 2023. The partnership saw NBG selecting Ripple as its technology partner for the digital Lari (GEL) pilot project, out of nine shortlisted candidates.
The pilot project will utilize Ripple’s CBDC platform to plan and execute the digital Lari initiative, enabling testing of CBDC technology in various sectors like retail and business.
Aside from Georgia, Ripple has also teamed up with several central banks for similar CBDC projects in Palau, Bhutan, Montenegro, Colombia, and Hong Kong. James Wallis revealed that Ripple is in discussions with more than 20 countries regarding CBDC programs. To promote adoption, Ripple released a comprehensive 23-page paper in December outlining the fundamentals, benefits, risks, and obstacles of CBDCs.
The expansion of NBG’s partnership with Ripple indicates significant progress in the digital Lari project for the San Francisco-based payments company.
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