Iran's central bank separates the 80 percent cheque-book rule for paper and electronic cheques

According to an announcement by the Central Bank of Iran published by Mehr News Agency on Tuesday, 28 July 2026 (6 Mordad 1405), the rules for obtaining a cheque book have changed. The requirement that at least 80 percent of the sheets from a previous cheque book be resolved and returned before a new book is issued will now be calculated separately and entirely independently for each cheque medium, paper or electronic.

The notice says the split of this control rule has been applied in the integrated cheque book issuance system, known as Sayad, since Wednesday, 15 July 2026 (24 Tir 1405). Previously the status of paper and electronic cheque sheets was assessed together, which could delay the issuance of an electronic cheque book for customers holding unresolved paper sheets.

The central bank said the purpose of the change is to make the two instruments independent of each other and to accelerate the penetration of electronic cheques in the banking network. Under the same programme, banks had already been required to enable remote acceptance and processing of electronic cheques, and the indicator for remote handover of electronic cheques has been set as one of the performance measures used to monitor banks under the electronic cheque development roadmap.