Few words about MICR Code of Banks in India:

MICR otherwise known as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition is a modern technology that recognises characters. This is mostly done in the banking sector where cheque processing is to be required. This can be also called as a substitute of routing number as well as account number which can be found at the lower part of the cheque. With the help of this technology, computers can read the provided information on the printed cheques or other bank documents such as the account numbers. MICR codes, unlike the other recognition technologies like barcodes, can be seen and read by common man.

Writing or printing of the characters in MICR is done by typefaces which are special such as with a toner ink or magnetic ink. The ink in such cases might be having iron oxide. When the machine does the decoding of the MICR characters, they are magnetised from the paper plane first. Following that, the characters can be spread on a read head of MICR codes which is a special kind of device. It is like the playback head which is used in the tape recorder. When the magnetised form of the character comes in contact or passes over tape recorder head, waveforms are produced that are recognised by some integrated system.

It is because of the magnetic depiction of the written characters, which allows the characters to be read reliably. In case these characters are over printed, hidden by extra markings or have been covered by stamps or signature during cancellation, they can be read. In comparison to OCR or optical recognition systems, in case of magnetic scanning the error for reaching the cheque is very less. Inability to read the documents is usually below 1% for MICR prints which are done rightly. Misreading rate or also called as substitution rate is 1 in 100,000 characters.

MICR Code of Banks In India