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MICR
Background
The
MICR market deals specifically with the printing of cheques and other
financial documents. Via the MICR font located at the bottom of the
financial document, the financial institution is able to
electronically capture the transaction detail for posting.
Established
in 1956, the use of MICR has remained the preferred process over other
forms of electronic capturing due to its reliability, durability and
cost effectiveness. Presently, some 3 to 4 million documents per say
are processed within the Australian marketplace accounting for
billions of dollars in transactions. Strictly monitored by the by the
Australian marketplace accounting for billions of dollars in
transactions. Strictly monitored by the Australian Payments Clearing
Association (APCA)
in conjunction with the Australian Banker's Association, printing of
financial documents require high quality, secure printing methods.
Traditionally,
this standard has only been available to specialist security printing
companies and banking institutions.
Technology
required to reproduce the E13B MICR font needs to be capable of
creating exact character formations. The magnetic properties in the
ink or toner used in printing the E13B font can generate electronic
signwave signatures when passed through the high speed reader/sorter
equipment installed within banking clearance houses. The electronic
signature generated by each character is translated into the
numeric values representing the Bank/State/Branch ID, Client account
number and Auxiliary number, ie cheque number. The amount of the
document is captured via optical character recognition methods which
can translate both machine printed and handwritten values. This
information is then used by the banking institution to exchange the
amount of the document from the issuer's account to the payee's
account or vice versa in the case of billing items.
A
MICR document may be processed up to 20 times before it is correctly
sorted for disbursement. All financial documents are returned to the
issuer's branch for reconciliation and archiving. The rigorous demands
put on both the MICR line and its carrier (the paper) apply additional
standards to the overall printing specification beyond those required
for the MICR font itself. The permanency of the MICR ink or toner to
the paper is crucial. If the toner falls off the document it will clog
the read head and reject following documents.
Out
of the daily 3-4 million documents being processed, around 2% of this
volume (approximately 48,000) will reject (up from .5% in the past).
Rejected documents require manual processing. The high cost of this
process has prompted the bank to recover costs up to $10 per item.
The
increase in use of Desktop printing systems for cheques and other
financial documents can be attributed to this. Individuals and
suppliers of technology being unaware of market requirements have
implemented systems which work well below market acceptance. Please
read "toner only product comparison".
Today,
the HP LaserJet "MICR Enabled" printing solution provides
high quality and secure printing within central and decentralized environments to all issuers of cheques and other financial documents.
The
jointly engineered "MICR Enabled" solution calibrates the
print engine with the toner and the E13B font to meet and maintain
market standards.
There
is more to MICR than just font and toner. You need Quality, Security,
Reliability and Simplicity.
Contact Information
Marinter Systems Pty. Ltd.
Copyright
© 1999
All
features and specifications subject to change without notice,
Hewlett-Packard, HP, Support Pack and LaserJet are
registered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Company.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Jetmobile is a registered trademark of Jetmobile Europe.
TROY is a registered trademark of TROY Group Inc. All other
trademarks and references are the rightful property of their
respective owners. Marinter Systems is an authorized MICR and
Barcode/MICR distributor for Jetmobile.
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