MICR - Check Readers

The characters printed on the bottom line of commercial and personal checks are special. They are printed with magnetic ink to meet specific standards. These characters can be read by a MICR reader at higher speeds and with more accuracy than manual data entry. Two MICR character sets are use worldwide; they are: E13-B and CMC-7. The E13-B set is used in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Japan, India, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Far East, and some countries in Central America. The CMC-7 set is used in France, Spain, other Mediterranean countries, and most South American countries.

E13-B Character Set
The MICR font character set E13-B includes digits 0 trough 9 and four symbols. The numbers and symbols of E13-B are as follows:

CMC-7 Character Set
The numbers and symbols of the CMC-7 character set are as follows:

The non-numeric CMC-7 characters are translated by the MICR reader as shown in the table below:

CHECK LAYOUTS

Personal Checks (E13-B)

Business Checks (E13-B)

MICR Fields

The numbers 1 through 4 refer to the numbers below the checks on the illustration and represent the 4 MICR fields.

1 - Transit Field
The Transit field is a 9-digit field bracketed by two Transit symbols. The field is subdivided as follows:
Digits 1-4: Federal Reserve Routing Number
Digits 5-8: Bank ID Number ( ABA -American Banking Association)
Digit 9: Check Digit

2 - On-Us Field
The On-Us field is variable, up to 19 characters (including symbols). Valid characters are digits, spaces, dashes, and On-Us symbols. The On-Us field contains the account number and may also contain a serial number (Check number) and/or a transaction code. Note that an On-Us symbol must always appear to the right of the account number.

3 - Amount Field
The Amount field is a 10-digit field bracketed by Amount symbols. The field is always zero-filled to the left.

4 - Auxiliary On-Us Field
The Auxiliary On-Us field is variable, 4-10 digits, bracketed by two On-Us symbols. This field is not present on personal checks. On business checks, this field contains the check serial number.