In November 2024, 16 bad cheques were issued in Cyprus for a total of €21,445, compared to 18 bad cheques for a total of €533,524 in the previous month.
This was announced by the Central Bank of Cyprus on Thursday 5th December.
The cheques were issued by 14 companies and two individuals. The Central Bank said that all the cheques had been added to the preliminary list of the Central Information Repository (CIR), which is maintained by the financial institution. Interestingly, in the corresponding month of 2023, 33 forged cheques were registered for a total amount of €60,851.
In turn, between January and November 2024, a total of 268 uncashed cheques worth €554,970 were recorded in the CIR, compared to 313 cheques worth €1.6 million in the corresponding period of the previous year. These involved 189 persons (68 legal persons, 29 natural persons, and 92 natural persons controlling legal persons). Incidentally, the figures are down and remain well below those recorded in 2014 (€3.361 million), 2013 (€5.673 million) and even 2012 (€7.759 million).
The Central Bank of Cyprus also highlighted that in the first 11 months of 2024, 185 persons were registered in the CIR, compared with 249 persons in the corresponding period of 2023.
From January 2020 to November 2024, a total of more than one thousand persons were registered in the CIR. Finally, more than two thousand bounced cheques were issued in Cyprus between January 2020 and November 2024, amounting to more than €6 million.
The Central Bank of Cyprus stresses that it is closely monitoring the situation and urges individuals and businesses to exercise financial prudence so as not to contribute to this growing problem.