Central Bank of Iran Sees Progress in Check Clearance

EghtesadOnline: According to a report by the Central Bank of Iran, about 6.3 million checks worth 619 trillion rials ($5.6 billion) were cleared by banks in the Iranian month Aban (Oct. 23-Nov.21) -- showing 0.19 % rise in volume and up 21.4% in value compared with the previous month.

News ID: ۷۸۴۴۴۰

31 December 2018

The figure includes 87.9% of the total volume and 86.9% of the total value of transacted checks.

In the same month, 2.3 million checks worth 353 trillion rials ($3.2 billion) were cashed in Tehran province, accounting for 88.2% of the total volume and 88.1% of  total value of the processed checks.

Bounced Checks

CBI data show that bounced checks declined both in number and value by late November, Financial Tribune reported.

Banks returned over 869,000 checks worth 93 trillion rials ($845 million) in the month, down 25.2 and 36.9 month-on-month, in terms of volume and value, respectively. The figures account for 12.1% of the total number and 13.1% of the total value of transacted checks.

A total of 304,000 checks worth 48 trillion rials ($436 million) bounced in Tehran Province alone, accounting for almost half of the value of the total checks that bounced across the country.

About 831,000 checks worth 88 trillion rials ($800 million) bounced due to lack or insufficient balance in accounts of the issuers. Bad checks due to insufficient funds accounted for 95.6% of all cases and 94.2% of the value of the total bounced checks, respectively.

Certified Checks

The CBI said banks processed 981,000 certified checks valued at 2.9 trillion rials ($26.3 million) in the eighth  Iranian month, which was 12.2% and 16.5% lower in volume and value, respectively, compared to a month earlier.

Tehran, as usual, held the lion’s share of 33.8% and Isfahan and Khorasan Razavi provinces cleared 7.6% and 7.2% of the encrypted checks, respectively.

In terms of value, 87% of the of the certified checks were cleared in Tehran (82.6%), Isfahan (2.2%) and Khorasan Razavi (2.2).

It should be noted that the above data only cover inter-bank checks and do not include checks exchanged between branches of the same bank.