Tbilisi (GBC) - An amendment has been made to the Law on Microfinance Organizations to support small and medium businesses and increase financial accessibility, according to which the maximum limit for micro-loans issued by microfinance organizations has increased from GEL 100,000 to 200,000.
The Georgian Dream parliament supported the bill in its third reading on Tuesday.
According to the explanatory note, increasing the maximum total amount of microcredit to be issued by microfinance organizations from GEL 100,000 to GEL 200,000 will help them retain their clients.
However, it is also noted that in parallel with the increase in the limit, “the impact of the risk of large loans on the microfinance organization should be taken into account and the increased risk should be limited by the amount of capital. Limiting this risk will help microfinance organizations with small capital not take on more risk than they can afford,” the explanatory note states.
In order to prevent these risks, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) will develop a regulatory framework and define additional requirements in the form of credit ratios.
In particular, the NBG must determine the limit of the ratio of the total amount of loans issued to one borrower or a group of interconnected borrowers to the regulatory capital of a microfinance organization that exceeds 100,000 GEL, as well as the limit of the ratio of the total amount of all loans issued by a microfinance organization to the regulatory capital of a microfinance organization that exceeds 100,000 GEL.
The law will enter into force on the 30th day after its publication - to give the National Bank time to prepare additional requirements.
At the moment, 31 MFOs operate in the Georgian financial market.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Economy has long recommended the NBG to increase the limit.
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