Market infrastructure - Georgia
Institutions and organisation
The Joint Stock Company Georgian Stock Exchange (GSE)
The Joint Stock Company Georgian Stock Exchange (GSE) is the only organised securities market in Georgia. GSE complies with global best practices in securities trading and offers an efficient investment facility to both local and foreign investors.
The automated trading system of GSE can accommodate thousands of securities that can be traded by brokers from the workstations at the GSE floor or remotely from their offices.
Georgian Central Securities Depository (GCSD)
The primary functions of the Georgian Central Securities Depository (GCSD) are:
- Providing nominee ownership of both corporate and government securities and performing clearing and settlement of securities transactions executed on the Georgian Stock Exchange;
- Opening, maintenance and closing securities accounts in accordance with its rules;
- Facilitating settlement of securities transactions without physical delivery of securities certificates;
- As a self-regulatory organisation (SRO), preparing rules for its members and supervising compliance with such rules;
- Applying sanctions concerning non-compliance of rules and regulations.
Regulatory structure
National Bank of Georgia (NBG)
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) is the central bank of Georgia. Its status is defined by the Constitution of Georgia. NBG uses the electronic communication system provided by the Montran CSD.
JSC United Securities registrar of Georgia
Registrars are licensed legal entities that are engaged in serving companies in their capacity as issuers. Registrars are responsible for keeping the primary registry of securities holders (shares and bonds).
All JSCs with more than 100 shareholders are obliged to conclude an agreement with a registrar for maintaining the shareholder register. The register of bondholders can be maintained either by registrar or by the issuer itself.
Three registrars currently account collectively for over 75% of all securities issued in Georgia.
The National Bank of Georgia performs registrar (and CSD) functions for government-issued securities.
Ministry of Finance of Georgia
The Ministry of Finance of Georgia is an executive government agency of the country performing the public administration function in finance, budgeting and taxation by ensuring the development and adherence to legislation for budgeting, inland revenue and accounting purposes as well as the prevention of economic offences through efficient investigation and preliminary scrutiny.
The main competences and authority of the Ministry of Finance are as follows:
- Preparation of the Annual State Budget of Georgia, along with the major data and plans for the following four years;
- Monitoring of the execution of the State Budget, reporting on the budget performance, submission of the budget execution reports to the Government and Parliament of Georgia;
- Public funds management for the Government of Georgia;
- Definition of the key direction of tax policy and improvement of tax legislation in the country;
- Sovereign debt management;
- Cooperation and coordination with international financial institutions and bilateral partners;
- Cooperation with international rating firms concerning the sovereign rating of the country;
The Ministry of Finance is accountable to the Government of Georgia and carries out tasks envisaged in legislation assigned and approved by the Government and Prime Minister of Georgia.