ABU DHABI, 21st June, 2017 (WAM) -- A total of 12.922 million cheques worth AED643.7 billion were handled by the UAE Clearing Cheque System during the first five months of 2017, according to the UAE Central Bank data.

A total of AED28.9 billion worth of 546,000 cheques were bounced from January through the end of May, accounting for 4.5 percent of the cheques' total value, and 4.2 percent of the total number of cheques handled by the electronic image-based cheque clearing system during the first five months of the year.

As per the statistics, the total value of dishonoured cheques during the first five months of 2017 fell by 7.3 percent, AED2.3 billion, against the same period last year during which the total value hit around AED31.22 billion.

On the monthly level, the total amount of cheques dishonoured through the UAE Clearing System declined 4.1 percent worth AED5.46 billion during the month of May - through which cheques worth AED133.4 billion were handled by the clearing system- against AED5.7 billion of cheques in April, during which the system cleared a total of AED127.4 billion worth of cheques.

The total number of dishonoured cheques during the month of May declined to 107.7 thousands from 108,000 in April, accounting for 4 percent of the total cheques cleared by the system in April, against 4.2 percent in April.

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2017.