8/9/2019 About Micr

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/about-micr 1/4

 

What is MICR? 

It's those mysterious, funny characters at the bottom of acheque, sometimes referred as the MICR line. These charactersare the key by which all cheques are automatically processed inthe United States today. This automated process is based on atechnology called Magnetic Ink Character Recognition orMICR, \mi-ker\. As the name indicates, this technology usesmagnetic reading to identify these unique numbers andcharacters. Currently, the United States processes over 60Billion cheques and other financial documents per year basedon the details in this MICR line.

MICR technology was developed in the mid-1950's to addressthe volume of cheques that were being processed manually. Thegoal was to accelerate the cheque routing process to route thecheque back to the location where the funds exist. WHY? A

cheque is a financial transaction. The institutions (or banks) thatare involved sometimes are located in the same state, but oftenare out of state or even out of the country. The goal is to settlethe transfer of funds as efficiently as possible. To address this problem, a group of individuals from the American BankersAssociation and Stanford University developed a set of 14unique characters called the E13B MICR Font. This font is printed with magnetic ink or toner that when magnetized, will

TKDigitally signed byTKDN: CN = TK, C =CA, O = CheqtechSystemsCorporation, OU =DevelopmentReason: I am theauthor of thisdocumentDate: 2005.01.3111:40:54 -07'00'

8/9/2019 About Micr

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/about-micr 2/4

emit a magnetic signal that identifies each unique character.

What Do The Characters Mean?  

The digits 0-9 are self explanatory. However, the E13B font hasfour special symbols that have the following meanings.

 Auxi liary On-Us Symbol  This character and all the numbers between them is referred toas the Auxiliary On-Us field. "On-Us" means the sorting

criterion as determined by the organization who will be sortingon this field, usually the originating bank or your bank. Thisfield is optional and does not exist on a personal cheque (thereis not enough space for this field on a personal cheque).Typically, the auxiliary "On-Us" field contains the documentserial number (or cheque number) that is also printed at theupper right hand corner of the cheque. The cheque serialnumber is repeated to assist the bank in reconciling youraccount.

Route & Transit Symbol 

This character and all the numbers between them is referred toas the "Route and Transit" field. This field contains directionson how to clear the cheque and, generally printed in the upperright hand corner as a fraction. This field indicates the FederalReserve District from which the cheque should be cleared; theFederal Reserve Bank or Branch serving the area where thedrawee bank is located; separates items that receive immediatecredit from others for which credit is deferred; and, alsoidentifies your bank number as assigned by the AmericanBankers Association.

On-Us Symbol This character and all the numbers between them is referred toas the "On-Us" field. This field contains your account numberand possibly your bank's branch number and/or cheque number.(Personal cheques usually have the cheque number here.) Theformat is flexible and is specified by your bank.

8/9/2019 About Micr

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/about-micr 3/4

8/9/2019 About Micr

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/about-micr 4/4

dollars the banking industry pays for rejected cheques. Here's athought...How are they absorbing this cost?

Summary 

Quality is critical to successful and usable MICR printing.