According to the survey, the number of bounced checks tripled in just one year, implying an increase of nearly 200% compared to December 2024. Between 2020 and mid-2024, the monthly average of bounced checks remained in a range of 25,000 to 35,000. By May 2025, 41,759 checks without funds were already recorded, a level significantly higher than the historical average. In December, the highest number of checks bounced due to insufficient funds was recorded since systematic statistics began, a phenomenon that harshly reflects the growing liquidity difficulties faced by thousands of companies, particularly small and medium-sized ones. According to a report by the Argentina Grande Institute, based on official data from the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), 119,285 checks were rejected for lack of funds in the last month of the year. From there, the rise was constant and without reversal: in October, rejections reached 92,535, in November they climbed to 108,979, and in December they hit a record high of 119,285. Finance and real economy specialists warn that this behavior is consistent with a context of strong credit restriction, falling consumption, rising operational costs, and difficulties in refinancing short-term liabilities. For many of them, a bounced check not only implies a specific cash flow problem but also a domino effect that extends to suppliers, employees, and tax commitments, worsening the fragility of the entire production chain. The Argentina Grande Institute stated that the growth in rejections constitutes 'another symptom of the difficulty of Argentine companies to meet their obligations,' and warned that if macroeconomic and financial conditions are not reversed, the phenomenon could extend into the first months of 2026. Thus, December's record leaves a forceful signal on the closing of the economic year: beyond financial or stock market indicators, the real economy faces deep tensions in its payment circuit, with concrete risks of greater delinquency, bankruptcies, and production paralysis if financing flow and predictability in the system are not restored. Sources: Argentina Grande Institute; Central Bank of the Argentine Republic; sectoral economic reports and analyses. Buenos Aires, January 31, 2026 – Total News Agency-TNA – The payment chain of the Argentine productive sector closed 2025 with an unprecedented alarm signal. This dynamic began to visibly change in the second half of 2024 and definitively broke in 2025, when the rejection curve adopted a clearly exponential behavior. The monthly data from the last year clearly illustrates this break. The figure not only marks a historic record but also confirms a trend of accelerated deterioration that deepened throughout 2025. The most alarming data for analysts is not only the level reached but the speed of the worsening. This abrupt jump is interpreted as a direct symptom of the financial tension that companies face to meet their current commitments. For several years, the system showed relative stability. In that scenario, the post-dated check—an instrument central to the financing of working capital—becomes a direct thermometer of financial stress. The impact is particularly severe on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), which depend heavily on this mechanism to sustain their daily operations.
