The Bahrain Monetary Agency collected 53,986 bad cheques in 2002, compared with 58,996 in 2001. The value of the cheques decreased from 44.64 million Bahraini dinars ($120.5 million) in 2001 to BD 40.13 million during the same period.
The total number of cheques processed by the BMA Clearing House rose by 2.5 percent to 2.074 million in 2002, from 2.023 million cheques in 2001. As a result, the proportion of returned cheques to total cheques cleared dropped to 2.55 percent in 2002, the lowest in eight years.
In terms of value, dishonored cheques represented 2.2 percent of the total value of cheques processed in 2002, compared with 2.83 percent in 2001. The value of all cheques processed by the BMA amounted to BD 1.81 billionin 2002, an increase of 14 percent over the 2001 figure of BD 1.58 billion.
The BMA has been implementing the Regulation Relating to Penalty System for Dishonored Cheques since the beginning of 1997. That year saw the number of returned cheques drop to 3.58 percent of total cheques processed, compared with 4.56 percent in 1995. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
