Cleared Checks’ Value Maintained the Downfall Trend by Q3 2016
According to the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), Lebanon’s value of cleared checks dropped by 6.76% year-on-year (y-o-y), where the number of checks cleared by Banque du Liban reached 9.20M worth $50.64B by the third quarter of 2016, compared to 9.26M checks with a value of $54.31B, in the same period of 2015.
Moreover, total value of checks in foreign currencies plunged 10.51% y-o-y by September 2016 to $36.08B, while the value of checks denominated in Lebanese Pounds rose by a yearly 4.02% to reach $14.56B. As such, the dollarization rate of checks, declined from 74.23% by September 2015 to 71.26% this year.
The value of returned checks registered an increase of 6.72 % to reach $1.22B by September 2016.
As for the month of September alone, the value of cleared checks rose by 0.65% y-o-y to reach $5.77B. In details, the value of checks denominated in foreign currencies (representing 70.18% of the total) fell 2.36% to $4.05B, while the value of checks in LBP which grew by 8.53% y-o-y to $1.72B.
Value of Cleared Checks by September ($M)
Source: ABL
