According to the Association of Lebanese Banks (ABL), the value of cleared checks reached $27.7B by May 2018, having contracted by 1.48% compared to the same period in 2017. Similarly, the total number of cleared checks fell by 1.92% year-on-year (y-o-y) to stand at 4.95 million (M) by May 2018.
In details, the number and value of cleared checks in foreign currencies retreated by 4.89% and 2.95% to reach 3.04M and $18.74B respectively by May 2018.
On the other hand, the number and value of cleared checks denominated in Lebanese Pounds ticked up by 3.22% and 1.73% y-o-y, to reach 1.9M and $8.95B, respectively.
As such, the share of cleared checks in foreign currencies from the total number of cleared checks declined from 63.36% by May 2017 to 61.44% by May this year.
As for the number of returned checks, it amounted to 109,966 by May 2018, up from 93,958 by May 2017. Accordingly, total returned checks grasped a share of 2.22% of the total number of cleared checks, up from a stake of 1.86% by May 2017.
Meanwhile, in the month of May 2018, the value of cleared checks reached $5.6B, up by 5% compared to April 2018. Similarly, the total number of cleared checks rose by 7% month-on-month, to stand at 1.02M in May 2018.
Value of Cleared Checks by May (in $B)
Source: ABL