A Bahraini cheque is filled in English on bilingual stationery and written in Bahraini dinars to three decimal places, because one dinar is 1,000 fils. Most Bahraini cheques also print the date in separate boxes, one digit per box (DD MM YYYY). Getting the decimals and those date boxes right is most of the work.

This guide covers cheques in Bahrain as of October 2026, including the 2025 changes to the Commercial Law, which now allow partial payment and let a bounced cheque be enforced directly.

How cheques are used in Bahrain

Cheques remain common in Bahrain for rent, supplier invoices, contractor payments and post-dated instalments, alongside instant transfers through the BENEFIT network. Bahrain has a long-standing image-based clearing system, and since 2025 it has a clearer route for recovering bounced cheques. That makes cheques a dependable instrument, and a costly one to get wrong.

Language, date format and currency

Language

Leaves carry Arabic and English text. Businesses normally fill them in English, which banks accept.

Boxed date digits

The date is day, month, year. On most Bahraini leaves each digit has its own small box. Write one digit per box, with leading zeros (05 03 2026, not 5 3 2026), and keep each digit inside its box. A digit sitting on a box line looks careless, and a teller may question it.

Dinars and fils: three decimals

The Bahraini dinar is divided into 1,000 fils, so figures take three decimals: BHD 5.750, not 5.75. In words, BHD 75.025 is "Seventy-Five Bahraini Dinars and Twenty-Five Fils Only". "Fils" stays the same in singular and plural. Large amounts use the million system. See KWD, BHD and OMR amounts in words for more examples.

Crossing, bearer and post-dated cheques

Crossing. Mark business cheques A/C Payee so they can only be paid into the payee's account. See account payee cheques.

Bearer. A bearer cheque can be cashed by anyone who holds it. Strike out the bearer wording unless you really mean to pay cash. The bearer cheque entry explains the risks.

Post-dated cheques. PDCs are standard for leases and instalments. Since 2025, a PDC that bounces can be enforced against you quickly (see below), so only issue PDCs you can fund, and keep a register. Our PDC guide covers a monthly routine. Bahrain's 2025 amendments also introduced fines for misusing blank cheques taken as security. If someone asks you for a security cheque, fill in the amount and payee yourself.

Validity and clearing

Banks in Bahrain, as in most of the Gulf, generally decline cheques more than six months old unless the drawer re-dates them. Check with your bank before presenting an older cheque. See cheque validity.

Clearing runs on the Bahrain Cheque Truncation System. According to Central Banking, the Central Bank of Bahrain launched it on 13 May 2012, built with BENEFIT, to replace paper clearing with cheque images and data. Cheques deposited before your bank's cut-off normally clear the same working day. Ask your branch for its exact cut-off.

Bounced cheques: what changed in 2025 and 2026

Three developments matter if you issue or receive cheques in Bahrain:

  • Law No. 23 of 2025 amended the Commercial Law (Decree-Law 7/1987). Law firm summaries of the law report that King Hamad ratified it on 11 May 2025. It lets a bank pay part of a cheque when the balance is short (new Article 465 bis, with the Central Bank of Bahrain setting how and when this is phased in). It makes a cheque returned for insufficient funds an enforceable document under the execution law (Article 465 bis 1). It also fines misuse of blank cheques (Article 491 bis).
  • Online enforcement from 3 February 2026. The Ministry of Justice announced that, under Ministerial Decision 6 of 2026, cheques returned for insufficient funds can be enforced through the Bahrain.bh national portal without filing a lawsuit. As reported, the fee is 2% of the cheque amount, capped at BD 1,000.
  • Criminal liability. Before these changes, the usual route was a criminal complaint under Article 393 of the Penal Code. The published summaries we found do not say this was repealed, and the Gulf Daily News reported in May 2025 that the Court of Cassation upheld jail sentences for a businessman in four dud cheque cases. Treat a bounced cheque as potentially criminal and get local legal advice.

The GCC bounced cheque law comparison puts Bahrain alongside its neighbours.

How to write a Bahraini cheque correctly

  1. Date: one digit per box, DD MM YYYY, with leading zeros.
  2. Payee: the full legal name.
  3. Figures: three decimals with separators, e.g. 2,480.500.
  4. Words: dinars and fils, ending "Only".
  5. Crossing: A/C Payee for named payments.
  6. Signature: matching the bank's specimen.

General rules are in how to write a cheque.

Pre-added Bahraini bank layouts

ChequeMaster is not limited to these banks. It works with any bank's cheque, in any country. The layouts below are simply the Bahraini bank layouts that come pre-added, so you can start printing without any setup. For any other bank, build a layout from a scan of a blank leaf in a few minutes, and add as many banks and layouts as you need.

  • Al Salam Bank (two layouts)
  • Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK)
  • Ithmaar Bank
  • National Bank of Bahrain

All four of these layouts use boxed date digits and share one cheque size, so one set of margins usually works for all of them. Bank-specific points:

  • Al Salam Bank: two layouts from different stationery designs, with nothing on the leaf to tell them apart. If fields land wrong relative to each other on the test print, switch the cheque book to the other layout before changing any margins.
  • BBK: despite the name, the cheque follows the Bahraini format. Add the account under Bahrain even if you also bank in Kuwait.
  • Ithmaar Bank: the layout has the bearer field enabled. Set the cheque book's Bearer text deliberately, and hide it if you pay only named payees.

Setting up ChequeMaster for Bahrain

  1. Currency: choose Bahraini dinar.
  2. Decimals: set decimal digits to 3 in Settings, or BHD 5.750 prints as 5.75. This is a general setting, so switch it back if you also print two-decimal currencies.
  3. Words and date: million system, DD/MM/YYYY. The Bahraini layouts split the date into the boxes for you.
  4. Cheque book: create one per account with the bank's layout and leaf numbers, and set the A/C Payee and Bearer defaults.
  5. Test print, date row first: print on plain A4 and hold it against a real leaf. If the date digits straddle the box lines, nudge the left margin in small steps until they sit centred. Usually the rest of the cheque lines up once the date does. See fixing alignment.

ChequeMaster prints in English, which suits Bahrain's bilingual leaves. It keeps a record of every cheque by number and status, so you can track returned and stopped cheques. See features.