More than 694,000 checks bounced during the month to January 20 -- up 3.9% compared to the earlier month, according to report on the Central Bank of Iran website.
The report said the bad checks were valued at 112 trillion rials ($800 million), also indicating a 7.7% monthly hike in value terms.
Bounced checks accounted for 8.2% of all issued checks and 10.1% of their value in the month. This indicates a subtle decline in returned checks compared to the corresponding month last year when bad checks accounted for 10.6% and 11.9% of the total volume and value of checks.
More than 205,000 checks worth 50 trillion rials ($357.14 million) bounced in Tehran Province during the period under review, accounting for 7.4% and 8.8% of the volume and value of checks.
Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad Province topped the list of provinces with the highest percentage of bad checks at 15.2%.
The percentage in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province was 12.2%, the second highest among all. Kurdistan and Lorestan provinces jointly came third with 11.7% each.
The lowest percentage was in Gilan at 6.5%, Yazd 7% and Alborz at 7.3%.
Drawn Checks
According to the CBI, more than 8.4 million checks with a total value of 1,105 trillion rials ($7.9 billion) were transacted during the tenth month of the current fiscal year, showing a 4.8% and 12.4% monthly hike in volume and value, respectively.
More than 2.8 million checks valued at 568 trillion rials ($4.05 billion) changed hands in Tehran Province during the month.
Tehran had the highest share of exchanged checks (both volume of value) accounting for 32.7% and 51.4% of all drawn checks.
Isfahan Province was second both in volume and value, representing 10.3% of all drawn checks and 6.5% of the value of checks issued in the month.
Banks cleared more than 7.7 million checks with overall value of 993 trillion rials ($7.09 billion) during the period.
The report said the cleared checks grew by 4.9% and 12.9% in volume and value, respectively, compared to the previous month.
In the reviewed period, more than 2.6 million checks valued at 517 trillion rials ($3.7 billion) were cashed by banks in Tehran Province.
More than 843,000 cashier checks worth 1,414 trillion rials ($10.1 billion) were cleared during the month, up 4.3% in volume and 15% in value compared to a month before.
More than 248,000 cashier checks worth 808 trillion rials were cashed in Tehran alone.
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.
