Giorgi Kintsurashvili, Head of Digital Banking Ecosystem at Bank of Georgia, discusses the bank’s strategic approach to leveraging emerging technologies like big data analytics and AI. He emphasizes to Seamless Xtra’s Carolina Lubinus the potential for personalized services and enhanced merchant access to financial data and sheds light on Bank of Georgia’s collaborative efforts with fintechs, tech giants, and industry players.
What emerging technologies do you believe will have the most significant impact on shaping the future of digital banking, and how is Bank of Georgia preparing to leverage these advancements within its digital banking ecosystem?
We believe at Bank of Georgia, that there is huge opportunity behind the enormous amount of transactional data which is owned by the customer and taken care of under the responsibility of banks. Therefore, big data analytics can unleash enormous opportunities to help customers receive more personalized banking products, non-financial lifestyle offerings such as rewards programs and on another hand – help merchants to have easy access to their financial data and make decisions with advanced analytical tools.
With big data in mind, we definitely think that the winners will be the banks who utilize the power of AI in a way that automates and implements advanced models for personalized services for both – businesses and end-users.
Collaboration and partnerships have become increasingly common in the digital banking sector. How does Bank of Georgia strategically collaborate with fintechs, tech giants, and other industry players to enhance its digital banking offerings and stay at the forefront of innovation?
We believe that the partnership with ecosystem players can and must be a two-way relationship. We prioritised Open Banking direction back in 2017 when we launched our platform for all API services that is available for tech companies. We tried to make easy integrations top priority and exposed our API products such as BOG ID (KYC), Open Banking APIs, Business Internet Banking APIs, Embedded Finance (BNPL and instalments) and all the payment products, such as account-to-account, card and loyalty point payments services publicly on our API marketplace. This brought us to API partnerships with hundreds of local and international tech companies, mainly in e-commerce, fintech and accounting/ERP software industries.
On the other hand, we have decided to leverage industry partnerships on our way to becoming the first financial super app in Georgia by integrating services like insurance product marketplace and investment services. We have even partnered with local fintech company to reduce time-to-market for our chatbot service, which helps us to automate customer support to 1.4 million digital users.
Data security and privacy are paramount concerns in the digital banking realm. Could you elaborate on Bank of Georgia’s approach to safeguarding customer data and ensuring compliance with evolving regulatory standards while still delivering a personalized and convenient digital banking experience?
Information is one of our most valuable assets, and data privacy is a priority. We have embedded good privacy standards and practices within the corporate operations and structure. We fully comply with applicable data protection legislation and adhere to the highest legal and information security standards. Our approach rests on having the technology, systems, controls, policies, and processes to ensure proper data governance and the appropriate management of privacy risk. In view of the continuous technological advancements which inevitably lead to the change of the cyber-threat landscape, we are committed to implementing measures to protect information in all of its forms from loss, unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification or destruction. To this end, we have established a rigorous privacy and information security program which is aligned with current business and regulatory requirements, and the emerging threat landscape.
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Giorgi boasts 13 years in the innovation and technology industry, with experience in working with the startup community, government and corporate world. He is currently leading Open Banking Strategy, Banking-as-a-service and Embedded Finance business development at Bank of Georgia and is passionate about helping early-stage entrepreneurs develop their business and product skills.
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Image: Giorgi Kintsurashvili, Head of Digital Banking Ecosystem at Bank of Georgia
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