The transition to “image friendly” cheques in Canada is well under way.

Update re September 2, 2005. Deadline for Business Cheques

All businesses should have completed modifications to their cheques to comply with the new specifications by September 2, 2008. However, financial institutions (FIs) recognize that some “old format” business cheques will remain in circulation beyond this deadline, and they will continue to process them until further notice to avoid potential disruption to customers.

Adopting the cheque specifications published in Standard 006 in January 2005 is important, as they support the capture of high-quality images required for a range of purposes, including delivery to customers and FIs’ internal use, as well as other processing improvements. Businesses that have not yet completed the modifications to their cheques are encouraged to do so as soon as possible to avoid potential issues as financial institutions introduce new image-based processes or other automated processing enhancements. FIs will work with business customers to address any issues with their cheque formats that create difficulties for automated processing of them.

Personal Cheques

Formats for personal cheques have also been modified. Financial institutions and their printing industry partner have been filling orders from customers with “new format” cheques since April 2005. Consumers with a supply of “old format” personal cheques can continue to use them until they need to re-order, provided that a good image can be captured from them. Based on experience to date, the vast majority of personal cheques are already “image friendly”.

Cheque Testing

Cheque printers, software providers and organizations that print their own cheques are strongly encouraged to provide pre-production samples of their new cheques to their financial institution to verify that they meet the new specifications. These organizations should contact their financial institutions for more information about the testing process and timelines.
For more information about the cheque specifications, consult the links at the bottom of this page.

Other Imageable MICR-Encoded Documents

Specifications for “image-friendly” store coupons and gift certificates were added to Standard 006 in January 2008.

The CPA has also published specifications for some other MICR-encoded documents. These include:

bank drafts and money orders;
inter-member debits;
settlement vouchers;
Canada Savings Bonds;
provincial savings bonds;
Canada Post money orders; and
paper pre-authorized debits.

Go to this site for complete information “Cheque Specifications.“

At Econoprint we print all types of cheques including, Personal and Business Cheques, Laser and Continuous Cheques.

Custom Designed and Printed……. Econoprint Inc.