Georgia's Five Largest Banks Adopt Nasdaq Calypso for Shared Treasury Infrastructure

The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has partnered with Nasdaq to modernize the country's treasury infrastructure through the Georgian Market Advancement Program (GMAP). This strategic overhaul aims to elevate the operational resilience and regulatory oversight of the nation's financial system.

Under the initiative, Georgia's five largest commercial banks—Bank of Georgia, TBC Bank, Liberty Bank, Terabank, and Basisbank—will implement the Nasdaq Calypso platform. Rather than individual deployments, the banks will utilize a shared, centralized infrastructure. This common front-to-back treasury system is designed to maintain fully segregated data for each participating institution to ensure security and privacy. The project is coordinated with the Georgian Financial Markets Treasuries’ Association (GFMTA) and is supported by funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Japan.

Modernizing Financial Workflows

A primary objective of the transition is the alignment of treasury workflows with ISO 20022, the international standard for financial messaging. By adopting this framework, Georgia's banking sector can ensure seamless interoperability with global markets. The move comes as the Georgian commercial banking sector continues to expand; the industry has seen double-digit growth over the last five years, with total assets approaching USD 38 billion. The NBG currently oversees a banking sector with assets totaling nearly 438 billion GEL.

Natia Turnava, Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, described the modernization of the treasury infrastructure as a "strategic priority" and a "critical step" in the ongoing development of the country's financial system.

The Shared Infrastructure Model

The use of a shared infrastructure model is a rare approach for competing commercial banks. By pooling resources, the participating institutions can access sophisticated derivatives capabilities and institutional knowledge from Nasdaq without each bank bearing the full operational complexity and cost of a standalone deployment. This allows mid-sized players among the top five to upgrade their technology stacks to international standards more efficiently than they could independently.

Magnus Haglind, Head of Capital Markets Technology at Nasdaq, noted that Georgia serves as a "compelling example" of how shared infrastructure can unlock value for both individual institutions and the broader financial system.

Industry Implications

This shift is expected to raise the overall standard of risk management across the Georgian banking sector. By centralizing the underlying technology while segregating the data, the NBG is creating a more uniform environment for regulatory oversight. The transition reduces the technical debt of individual banks and accelerates the adoption of modern risk management tools.

Observers will now watch how the implementation phase progresses and whether this shared-services blueprint is adopted by other emerging markets seeking to modernize their financial infrastructure rapidly. The success of the GMAP will likely depend on the seamless integration of the Calypso platform across the five diverse banking entities.