The FINANCIAL -- Total volume of deposits in the country’s banking sector (including term deposits and current accounts of non-financial and households sectors, including payable interest) increased by 2.2 percent or 74.7 million GEL compared to the previous month and exceeded 3.5 billion GEL by February 1, 2010.

The FINANCIAL -- Fitch ratings has on March 2 maintained the 'CCC' Long-term Issuer Default rating (IDR) of JSC BTA Bank (Georgia) (BTAG)'s on Rating Watch Negative (RWN), and affirmed the bank's other ratings.

The FINANCIAL -- The volume of lending by commercial banks (including loans to non-residents) increased by 1.1 percent compared to the previous month and exceeded 5.2 billion GEL by February 1, 2010.

The FINANCIAL -- The Georgian Banking Training Centre in cooperation and with the financial support of the Greek Government and Hellenic Aid trained 58 representatives from Georgian banks under the programme named Training of Trainers for the Banks of Georgia. The participants were trained by professors from the University of Piraeus.

The FINANCIAL -- Tbilisi , Georgia. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is training Georgian bankers on managing risks and improving their credit portfolios, thus helping them mitigate the impact of the financial crisis and expand lending to the real economy.

The FINANCIAL -- According to Bloomberg.com Liberty Capital LLC, Romanian billionaire Dinu Patriciu’s Georgia-based investment vehicle, is shopping for banks in frontier markets, his business partner Lado Gurgenidze said.

The FINANCIAL -- Loan taking at TBC Bank is becoming much more easy and accessible: Bank announced special SALE campaign. During 3 month period TBC Bank will provide mortgage, consumer and auto loans -1% less than normal interest rate.

The FINANCIAL -- The majority of Georgian commercial banks are limiting cash exchange of the Russian Ruble. Banks are saying that the “Ruble is not a profitable currency”.