About 686,000 checks worth 100 trillion rials ($772.20 million) bounced, according to data released by the Central Bank of Iran.
In terms of volume and value, bad checks accounted for 9% and 12% of all drawn checks in the period, respectively.
More than 213,000 checks with overall value of 46 trillion rials ($355.2 million) bounced in the capital alone, accounting for 8.5% of the volume and 10.7% of the total value during the month, according to Financial Tribune.
In terms of numbers, Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad Province topped the list of provinces with the highest ratio of bad checks to transacted checks at 17.1%.
Next on the list was Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province at 13% and North Khorasan came in third with a ratio of 12.9%.
Provinces with the lowest ratio were Gilan at 6.5%, Yazd 7.8% and Alborz 8.1%.
Insufficient funds in the accounts of issuers were the main reason why the checks were rejected. During the month under review, more than 660,000 checks worth 95 trillion rials bounced because of not sufficient funds (NSFs) or there was no money in the check issuers’ account.
Checks that bounced due to these two reasons accounted for 96.2% and 95.1% of the total bad checks, respectively, in value and volume.
A total of 7.6 million checks with total value of 836 trillion rials ($6.45 billion) were drawn in the 30 days.
Compared to a month before, the number of drawn checks rose 3.6% and the value fell 1%.
In volume terms, Tehran had the biggest share of transacted checks, accounting for 32.8% of the total. Isfahan and Khorasan Razavi provinces came in second and third, respectively, with 10% and 8.1%.
Out of all checks drawn in the month, 2.5 million checks valued at 433 trillion rials ($3.34 billion) were processed in Tehran Province.
More than 64 % of the total value of checks was exchanged in Tehran, Isfahan and Khorasan Razavi provinces, which collectively represented 51.8%, 6.3% and 6.2% of checks respectively.
Cleared Checks
More than 6.9 million checks were cleared by banks during the period – indicating 2.9% increase in volume compared to a month ago when 6.7 million checks were cleared.
Cleared checks during the month stood at 735 trillion rials ($5.67 billion) showing a slight decline of 0.8%.
During the reviewed month about 2.3 million checks valued at 387 trillion rials ($2.98 billion) were cashed in Tehran Province.
Cleared checks in the capital accounted for 91.5% of the total volume and 89.3% of the total value of checks.
Around 716,000 cashier checks worth 1,041 trillion rials were cleared by the banks indicating 9.1% and 11.6% decline, respectively in volume and value.
More than 217,000 checks worth 605 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.
The CBI report covered only interbank checks processed by Chekavak, a CBI-affiliated electronic check processing system, and did not include checks circulated within branches of a single bank.