The numbers indicate a 9.2% and 15.1% decline in the volume and value of checks, respectively, compared to a month earlier, data drawn from Chekavak system, the CBI's official website, showed.
Chekavak is an electronic check processing system that primarily aims at eliminating the physical circulation of checks in the banking system and at the same time seeks to improve the credibility of checks.
The data covered only interbank checks processed by Chekavak, according to Financial Tribune.
Almost half (50.9%) of the total checks changed hands in Tehran, Isfahan and Khorasan Razavi provinces with a respective individual share of 33.1%, 9.9% and 7.9%.
Accordingly, 2.2 million checks worth over 440 trillion rials ($3.82 billion) changed hands in Tehran alone during the period.
In terms of the value, Tehran again had a predominant share of 52.3% while Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan ranked second and third with 6% and 5.9%.
Cleared Checks
About 5.9 million checks worth 748 trillion rials ($6.50 billion) were cleared by banks during the month under review, showing 9.5% and 16.7% fall in the volume and value of checks, respectively, compared to the previous month.
The figure accounts for 90.6% of the total number and 88.9% of the total value of checks issued.
In the same month, 2 million checks worth 395 trillion rials ($3.43 billion) were cashed in Tehran Province, accounting for 91.4% of the total volume and 89.8% of total value of checks.
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad topped the list of provinces with the highest ratio of cleared checks' value to the total of checks issued at 93.6%. This is while Kurdistan Province had the lowest ratio of value of bounced checks to the total value of checks transacted at 83.5%.
Bad Checks
During the month, banks returned 617,000 bad checks worth over 94 trillion rials ($817.39 million), which was down 6.1% in number compared to the month before.
In addition, the figure indicates a 1.2% growth in the value of bounced checks against the corresponding period in the previous year.
A total of 186,000 of bounced checks pertained to Tehran valued at 45 trillion rials ($391.30 million).
Countrywide close to 9.4% and 11.1% of all checks bounced in terms of number and value, respectively.
About 593,000 checks worth 88 trillion rials ($765.2 million) bounced due to insufficient balance in accounts of issuers. Bad checks due to insufficient funds accounted for 96.1% of all cases in terms of number and 94.4% in value of the total bounced checks.