Ripple is forging a stronger relationship with the Republic of Georgia by investigating opportunities to digitize the local economy in collaboration with the National Bank of Georgia (NBG).
James Wallis, the executive of Ripple, has met with Natia Turnava, the acting governor of the National Bank of Georgia, and Varlam Ebanoidze, the director of the bank’s Financial and Supervisory Technology Development Department, to further their collaboration in the fields of financial technology and digitalization.
In an official LinkedIn post on June 8, the Georgian central bank declared the meeting.
During the meeting, Wallis, the vice president of central bank engagements at Ripple, introduced the Georgian officials to Alistair Brown, Ripple’s associate EPAM Systems representative.
“It was a privilege to return to Tbilisi and to introduce Alistair Brown, an employee of our partner EPAM Systems, to Natia Turnava, the Acting Governor of the National Bank of Georgia,” stated Wallis.
Newtown, Pennsylvania-based EPAM is a company that specializes in the design of digital products, software engineering services, and digital platforms. “EPAM” is an acronym for “Effective Programming for America.”
The primary objective of the discussion, as per the official statement from the NBG, was to investigate potential opportunities for collaboration in the digitalization of the Georgian economy.
The new partnership continues the previous collaboration between the NBG and Ripple, in which the latter functions as the technological partner for the NBG’s pilot CBDC project, the digital lari.
In September 2023, the NBG announced its intention to advance CBDC research by inviting nine companies, including Ripple Labs, to participate in the digital lari initiative, as previously reported. The financial regulator subsequently appointed Ripple Labs as the official technology partner for developing digital lari.
Ripple is not the sole global central bank collaborating with Georgia’s central bank on developing CBDCs and related integrations. Ripple Labs has participated in CBDC pilots in various countries, including Bhutan, Colombia, Pulau, Montenegro, and others, in addition to Georgia.
In late 2023, Ripple reiterated its public support for the global development of CBDCs in a 23-page white paper. “The most significant positive impacts of asset tokenization, an increasingly targeted mechanism for transforming tangible assets into digital tokens stored on the blockchain, are supported by CBDCs,” the firm wrote.
Some critics are apprehensive about potential CBDC-related drawbacks, such as government surveillance and privacy issues, although companies like Ripple have been supporting the development of the CBDC.
