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Imagine more than 5 million paper cheques shipped across Canada from one financial institution to another every business day. The procedure has been in place for more than a century; the beneficiary’s bank presents a paper cheque for payment to the payee’s bank. A clearinghouse (or processing center) acts as a facilitator.
Document imaging technology has opened the door to a more efficient way to exchange documents and in this case, cheques. The Canadian Payments Association (CPA) has published new specifications that will enable banks to electronically transfer cheque images instead of physically transfer paper cheques. The new specifications will call for major changes in cheque specifications.
CHEQUE IMAGING OFFERS MANY BENEFITS TO THE CUSTOMER:
Customers will have the option of viewing cheque images online, shortly after the transaction is debited from their account.
More timely account reconciliation will contribute to earlier detection of fraudulent items, and in turn, a greater probability of retrieving these funds.
Some financial institutions may offer clients print versions of cheque images with their monthly statements in a variety of formats; for example several cheques may be imaged on a single page. Having several cheques imaged on a single page will contribute to reducing storage space.
DATAMARK GUARANTEES THAT THE CHEQUES WE PRINT FOR OUR CLIENTS WILL FULLY COMPLY TO THESE NEW CPA REGULATIONS
The deadline for all Canadian business cheques to conform with the new specifications as outlined in CPA Standard 006, Part A is June 2007.
KEY CHANGES AS REQUIRED BY THE CPA
HERE IS THE SUMMARY OF THE KEY CHANGES AS PUBLISHED BY THE CPA
1. Adoption of a numeric date field in one of three specified formats (YYYYMMDD, MMDDYYYY or DDMMYYYY). Field indicators must be printed below the date field to indicate which format is being used. Bilingual date field indicators are accomodated for cheques using the international date format (YYYYMMDD);
2. A mandatory consecutive number in the MICR line encoded on the bottom of the cheque (until now the consecutive number has been optional);
3. An increase in the minimum width of a cheque from 6” to 6 1/4”, or 15.88 cm, to ensure there is sufficient space to accommodate the mandatory consecutive number in the MICR line;
4. Standardized positions for key fields on the cheque, such as the date field and the amount in figures;
5. Disallowance of elements that may hinder the capture of images or data from the cheques (e.g. reverse printing, italics or slanted fonts,
a bottom border printed below the MICR line and the use of black carbon on the reverse of cheques will not be permitted);
6. A provision to ensure that security features do not interfere with key data, or “pre-defined areas of interest”;
7. New printing requirements on the reverse of the cheque so that image capture can be accomplished and meet the required specs;
8. Some revisions to technical specifications (e.g. maximum Print Contrast Signal) to ensure high-quality images can be captured;
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