16.91% to stand at $14.07B by May 2022
According to the data published by the Association of Lebanese Banks’ (ABL), the total number of cleared checks in the Lebanese financial system slumped from 1,550K checks from May 2021 to 878,074 checks by May 2022. Consequently, the value of total cleared checks decreased yearly by 16.91% to reach $14.07B by May 2022.
In details, the value of checks in LBP increased remarkably from $7.48B by May 2021 to reach $9.13B by May 2022, while value of checks in foreign currencies decreased significantly by 48% year on year (YOY) to reach $4.65B by May 2022.
In addition, the volumes of cleared checks in Lebanese Pounds and foreign currencies witnessed significant yearly drops of 36% and 49.50% respectively to settle at 450,951 and 427,123 checks, by May 2022.
Accordingly, the dollarization of cleared checks in terms of value significantly declined by May 2022, to settle at 23.29%, instead of 37.05% by May 2021. In the same token, the dollarization rate of checks in terms of volume fell by May 2022, to reach 48.64% instead of 54.55% by May 2021.
Notably, the number of returned checks fell substantially by 52.83% YOY to stand at 6,179 checks while the value of returned checks retreated by 45.06% YOY to reach $189M by May 2022. Noting that banker checks are recently being more used to conduct check payment transactions, thus decreasing the number of returned checks.
Value of Cleared Checks by Currency, by May (in $B)
