Banking & Finance

Banking and finance are the industries where knowledge, experience and good reasoning skills pay off. The main objective of our team is to facilitate to the smooth functioning of financial institutions and provide legal clarity and stability for our clients in this constantly changing industry.

BANKING

Commercial Banks

Banking is the most developed segment of financial sector in Georgia; currently, 19 commercial banks are actively operating in the country. BCO has been engaged in the banking law practice since the early days, when now-prominent national banks were making first steps in the banking industry. Throughout the past 20 years our company has witnessed the change from completely deregulated market to a moderately regulated one. In light of the 2008 Financial Crisis, the National Bank of Georgia adopted new wave of restrictive requirements on capital adequacy, liquidity, leverage and other prudential regulation standards.

Our team has been assisting to the leading depositary institutions with regulatory matters in order to avoid any obstructions for their business activities. BCO’s services are not restricted to the regulatory matters. We provide legal advice on day to day operations to the Georgian leading banks. Moreover, BCO has been engaged in corporate aspects of the banking industry; our experience includes major merger/acquisition deals, such as the acquisition of Bank Republic by TBC Bank and the merger of the Bank of Georgia with Tbiluniversal Bank. Our lawyers have participated in numerous bank financing deals, the most recent examples of which are the Bank of Georgia financing, TBC Bank financing and Basis bank financing by EBRD. The scope of our services additionally entails dispute resolution on behalf of our clients, including regulatory disputes, finance litigation, etc.

Investment Banks

BCO’s experience of cooperation with investment banks is immense; majority of our clients are either international investment banks or national /foreign corporations receiving financing from the former. Development banks are actively present on the Georgian financial market; their involvement ranges from infrastructural to agricultural projects. We have rendered services to the world’s leading investment banks such as European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, International Bank of Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank etc. The scope of our services entails providing day to day legal advice on the issues of national jurisdiction as well as participating in drafting of project finance agreement and checking compliance of legal documents with the Georgian legislation.

FINANCE

Insurance

BCO has worked with several notable insurance companies over the last two decades. We have participated in negotiations on behalf of our clients, drafted and prepared myriads of legal documents on the wide array of issues related to insurance. Our firm has ensured corporate arrangements of the leading national and international companies operating in Georgia.Furthermore, we have provided foreign insurance corporations with the detailed information on various aspects of national insurance regulations, employment, regulatory and tax matters. It goes without saying that our team reviews and amends insurance contracts of our clients from various industries, who are intending to insure their assets.

Our clients include international financial institutions as well as prominent Georgian insurance firms.

BCO has worked with Zurich Insurance Group, Gras Savoye Insurance Brokerage firm, AIG Europe etc. Additionally we have rendered services to prominent national financial institutions including: Irao.

Microfinance/Online Credits

BCO’s expertise ensures the most efficient functioning of legal entities engaged in microfinance/online credit industry. The emergence of this type of institutions was unexpected; therefore the regulatory basis was relatively shallow at the initial stage. In the recent past the National Bank of Georgia adopted new regulations, which proved to be cumbersome for the microfinance organizations/online lenders. Our mission is to assist the latter to conduct business in the most cost-efficient and unrestricted manner, which is allowed by the regulatory framework.

We have advised prominent microfinance institutions and online lenders operating in Georgia, such as MI Credo, LTD Soho Group etc. Our team provides legal advice on tax, corporate and regulatory matters.

Capital Markets

Capital markets are at the incipient stage of development, therefore relatively few transactions occur. BCO has drafted number of securities sale-purchase agreements; moreover it has legally prepared variety of financial instruments. The firm is regularly asked to assess and provide legal opinion on the compliance of certain securities transaction with the national jurisdictions. In addition, we have drafted handful of questionnaires and reports on the securities and capital markets’ legislation assessment.