Georgia prepares to join the Single Euro Payments Area

Georgia is preparing to join the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), which will facilitate monetary transactions with EU countries.

To this end, the Georgian government has already submitted to the parliament packages of laws on the activities of the National Bank, commercial banks and the payment system.

“Joining SEPA will bring benefits in many areas: it will add credibility to the banking sector of Georgia in the international arena, it will simplify trade relations with the European Economic Area, simplified services will be provided to Georgian citizens, which is especially important, given the trend of increasing remittances from EU countries. Maka Bochorishvili, Chairman of the European Integration Committee of the Georgian Parliament, said.

Discussions of the bill in the Georgian parliament will begin in the coming days at the levels of relevant committees – on financial-budgetary, sectoral economics and economic policy, legal issues and European integration.

Earlier, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that joining SEPA is another step towards the country’s integration into the EU.

SEPA is a transfer in euros between bank accounts in Europe and the European Economic Area. Through the SEPA system, you can make a payment without high transaction fees and fairly quickly. The time required to transfer money ranges from a few seconds to one business day.