According to the Association of Lebanese Banks (ABL), the value of cleared checks stood at $23.41B by May 2019, down by 15.47% compared to the same period last year. Similarly, the total number of cleared checks retreated by an annual 13.9%, to settle at 4.26 million (M) checks by May 2019.
In details, the number and value of cleared checks in foreign currencies lost 21.15% year-on-year (y-o-y) and 21.69% y-o-y, to reach 2.4M and $14.68B, respectively, by May 2019. As such, the number of cleared checks denominated in foreign currencies constituted 56.26% of the total number of cleared checks, down from 61.44% by May 2018.
On the counterpart, the number and value of cleared checks denominated in Lebanese Pounds fell by 2.34% and 2.46% y-o-y, to stand at 1.87M worth $8.73B by May 2019.
In turn, the number of returned checks amounted to 111,032 by May 2019, rising from 109,966 by May 2018. Accordingly, the share of returned checks of the total number of cleared checks increased to 2.60% by May 2019, up from 2.22% by May 2018.
Value of Cleared Checks by May (in $M)
Source: ABL