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“We took a forced step when we left the bank, but we will not yield our worth and justice,” Khazaradze, who still serves as chairman of the board of TBC Bank Group, Georgia’s biggest retail banking group, told Reuters.
Georgia’s central bank president Koba Gvenetadze has refused to hold public talks on the accusations raised against TBC Bank in relation to the operations more than a decade ago. NBG said that such discussions would harm the country’s banking sector.
But Khazaradze, invited by lawmakers to parliament on February 26, said he remained open to public debates and has nothing to hide.
“As you know it, today, I was not allowed to say a thing. We are ready to arrive in the relevant parliamentary committee again, to express our position from the public tribune. We are waiting for an invitation from the Parliament in the nearest future. I hope, the truth will be revealed and there will not be the situation that could result in misunderstanding and speculations,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
In a statement issued on February 21, the National Bank of Georgia explained again the situation. The operations in 2007-2008, by which they took $16.7mn loans by intermediary companies and never paid back, caused damages to TBC Bank. The bank had already provisioned and taken the loan out of the balance sheet by the time it listed its shares on London Stock Exchange in 2012, the central bank explained.
The central bank’s statements and the resignation of the two had a positive impact on the bank’s shares: their price increased by 8.6% on the LSE. When the central bank asked the two to step down, TBC’s shares dropped by 7%.
TBC and National Bank of Georgia signed an agreement to iron out the disagreements, after the former announced plans to sue the later in court. TBC will pay the GEL1mn fine and will cooperate with the central bank to investigate the deeds in 2008.
But the two founders might still sue the central bank on their own behalf.
“I made a decision to leave TBC bank where I spent 27 years of my life,” reads the statement posted by Khazaradze on Facebook.
“I will not repeat what kind of attack our bank is facing. As a result, our international shareholders suffered a loss of 200 million dollars in one month, so our country has been seriously damaged. Without any investigation or court decision, they seriously stained our reputation by accusing us of alleged money laundering, non-existence of which has been internationally recognised ... I realised that the goal was to discredit me, I realised that they are fighting against our success, I realised that the company's growth should be limited in Georgia,” he wrote .
8.2 Central Bank policy rate
34 GEORGIA Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com
Georgia cuts policy rate by 25bp to 6.75%
The Monetary Policy Committee of the National Bank of Georgia on January 30 cut its refinancing rate by 25bp to a still restrictive rate of 6.75%. The central bank sees headline inflation around 3% in the medium