TBC Bank Withdraws all Court Cases Against the National Bank of Georgia

Over the last few days, we have had detailed discussions around events concerning TBC Bank. Regarding this, NBG announces the following:

Announcement from TBC Bank 

Since TBC Bank takes into account the possible damage to the country’s investment image and respects the role of the National Bank, as a qualified regulator, and despite the fact that the decisions of the National Bank was appealed in the court, JSC TBC Bank would like to announce that it will implement a restructuring of its Supervisory Board whereby the founding shareholders will not be represented at the supervisory Board of JSC TBC Bank. The founding shareholders will maintain their positions as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of TBC Bank Group PLC (a London-based, 100% shareholder of JSC TBC Bank). TBC Bank withdraws all court cases against the National Bank of Georgia and will pay approximately GEL 1 million, which was previously requested by the NBG and disclosed by TBC PLC on 9 January 2019.

In addition, TBC Bank continues to cooperate with the NBG to further improve the quality of the Bank’s corporate governance. In order to prevent any questions from any third party regarding corporate governance, TBC PLC will engage with a reputable international firm to conduct a review of the group’s related party transactions, practices and procedures.

Announcement from the National Bank

NBG welcomes this decision. This will have a positive effect on the transparency of the Bank and will increase investor confidence, which will ultimately have a positive effect on the development of the Bank and the country’s financial sector.

NBG stresses that TBC Bank is one of the leading financial institutions in the country and in the region and is led by a highly qualified executive management team and independent members of the Supervisory board. TBC Bank is a strong and stable credit institution and fully complies with economic normative requirements and limits set by the National Bank.

Additionally, the NBG would like note that, in this case, its supervisory focus was on the risks associated with matters concerning conflicts of interest and instances of the breaches of the regulation on conflicts of interest related to the 2007-2008 transactions.

Within the scope of its mandate, the NBG continues to monitor the implementation of the abovementioned decisions.

With this, from both sides this matter has been closed. We call on all the parties to stop speculations on this topic.