US Banking
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) is a technology used to print and read the machine-readable characters on the bottom of checks and other negotiable documents. Developed in the 1950s by the American Bankers Association and Stanford Research Institute, MICR uses specially magnetized ink and a standardized font (E-13B in North America, CMC-7 in parts of Europe and South America) that can be read by high-speed sorting machines.
MICR characters are printed with ink containing iron oxide particles. When a check passes through a reader-sorter machine, the characters are magnetized and then read by a magnetic head that detects the unique waveform of each character. The check routing line encoded in MICR includes the bank's routing number, the account number, and the check serial number. The E-13B font includes 14 characters: the digits 0-9 and four special symbols (transit, on-us, amount, and dash).
MICR technology remains the standard for check processing worldwide because magnetic reading is highly reliable even when checks are wrinkled, stamped, or smudged, unlike purely optical methods. Although check volumes have declined, MICR is still required by the Federal Reserve for check clearing and is integral to mobile check deposit systems, which use image capture to read the MICR line.
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