Bouncing across Arabia

DUD cheques are bouncing around the Gulf region, says a report recently published by Oman's Central Bank. In Europe, fewer than 1% of all personal cheques are returned because of lack of money in the account: in Qatar, 9.5% of them bounce back; 5.5% in the UAE; 3.6% in Oman and 3.4% in Saudi Arabia. In countries that prefer not to publish figures, such as Kuwait, Bahrain and Yemen, the rate may be even higher. The Omani police say that the problem in the sultanate has increased by 300% over the past five years. One finance company there says that more than a quarter of the cheques it gets are no good. Oman's two car-hire firms each receive nearly 1,500 bad cheques a month.