Lebanese account holders have now cleared 88,862 checks in fresh US dollars, worth a combined $1.12 billion, according to data from the Association of Lebanese Banks (ABL) covering the period up to August 2026. That works out to roughly $12,600 per check on average.
Add the 32,569 fresh checks written in Lebanese pounds, worth LBP 47,864 billion, and the running total reaches 121,431 checks.
How Circular 165 Brought Checks Back
Fresh checks exist because of Banque du Liban (BDL) Circular 165. It allowed depositors to pay by check from June 1, 2023, as long as the account holds fresh US dollars or Lebanese pounds.
To make it work, BDL built a new clearing system, kept separate from the one that handles pre-crisis deposits. The central bank had two goals in mind: get people to open new accounts in both currencies, and cut the country's heavy reliance on cash to help the economy recover.
Legacy Check Volumes Keep Falling
Across the wider system, the picture looks very different. Total cleared checks fell 37.17% year on year to 46,210 by August 2026. Lira checks dropped 36.60% to 44,351, while foreign currency checks fell 48.25% to just 1,859.
In value terms, lira checks barely moved, slipping 0.47% to LBP 39,454 billion. Foreign currency checks took a much bigger hit, falling 39.05% to $295 million. As a result, the share of checks written in foreign currency, measured by volume, fell from 4.88% in August 2025 to 4.02% in August 2026.
Bounced Checks Drop by 42%
Returned checks, the ones that bounce, fell 41.90% to 233 by August 2026. Their foreign currency value collapsed by 85.64% to $12.70 million. Returned lira checks went the other way, with their value rising 28.68% to LBP 341 billion.
Meanwhile, the fresh system keeps moving: 16,993 fresh checks cleared in August 2026 alone.
