10% Decline in Bounced Checks

EghtesadOnline: During the calendar month to October 22, approximately 618,000 checks worth 103 trillion rials ($845 million) bounced, according to a report by the Central Bank of Iran.

News ID: ۷۴۹۰۴۹

27 November 2019

The figure is down by 10.2% in volume and decline in value terms was 4.8%, the CBI said on its website.

Bounced checks accounted for 8.4% of the total number of checks and 12.2% of the value of checks drawn during the month.

Bad checks drawn in Tehran Province alone contributed to 7.7% and 12.2% of all bounced checks in terms of volume and value, respectively, Financial Tribune reported.

More than 181,000 checks valued at 53 trillion rials ($434 million) could not be cashed in the capital during this period.

Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad Province ranked first as the region with the highest ratio of bounced checks to transacted checks at 14.8%. Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province was next at 12.2% and the ratio for North Khorasan 11.5%.

Likewise, provinces with the lowest ratio were Gilan 6.1%, Alborz and Yazd jointly 7.4% and Khorasan Razavi 7.8%.

The checks bounced mainly due to insufficient funds in the accounts of issuers. During the period, more than 594,000 checks worth 97 trillion rials turned out to be worthless because there was no money in the check issuers’ accounts and /or the amounts were insufficient.

Checks that bounced due to these two reasons represented 96.1% and 94.5% of total bad checks, respectively in terms of value and volume.

Drawn Checks

During the month to Oct. 22, more than 7.3 million checks worth about 884 trillion rials ($7.2 billion) were transacted.  This indicates a 1.7 decline in the number of drawn checks and increase of 1.3% in value compared to a month earlier.

About 50.3% of the total checks were issued in Tehran, Isfahan and Khorasan Razavi provinces, which collectively issued a majority of checks with a share of 32.1%, 10% and 8.2%, respectively.

According to the report, about 2.4 million checks worth over 435 trillion rials changed hands in Tehran in the period.

In terms of value, Tehran as usual had a predominant share of 51.6% while Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan came in second and third, respectively, with 6.5% and 6.1%.

The figures exclude checks circulated within branches of a single bank and covers only interbank checks processed by Chekavak, a CBI-affiliated electronic check processing system.

Banks processed 6.7 million of drawn checks worth 741 trillion rials ($6 billion) in the seventh months of the current fiscal year.

Cleared checks registered a slight decline of 0.9% in volume and an increase of 2.2% in value on monthly basis.

The number of cleared checks in Tehran Province was 2.2 million worth 383 trillion rials.

Cleared checks in the capital accounted for 92.3% of the total volume and 87.9% of the total value of checks.

Around 787,000 cashier checks worth 1,178 trillion rials were cleared by the banks indicating 3.2% and 1.7% decline, respectively in volume and value.

More than 246,000 checks worth 495 trillion rials were cashed in Tehran.

A cashier's check is a check guaranteed by a bank, drawn on the bank's own funds and signed by a cashier. Cashier's checks are treated as guaranteed funds because the bank, rather than the purchaser, is responsible for paying the amount.