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The transition to “image friendly” cheques in Canada is
well under way.
Update re September 2 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.
The specifications for these items are outlined in Section
6 of Standard 006. The timeline for the adoption of the specifications for these
items was September 2, 2008.
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