As I recall from back in the 1980s, we used check sorters. And
the tellers did the encoding needed when the checks were
presented. (I was working in banks back then).
Today this is standard in banks and credit unions at the teller's
station. And so you see a line item on your statement for a check.
This really got started with Check 21.
*Check* *21* is a law that allows banks to create and use
substitute *checks*, which are legal equivalents of original
*checks*, to reduce the cost and time of *check* processing.
Regards,
Steve Thompson
On 7/31/2026 11:27 AM, Phil Smith III wrote:
You mean print products are now reading the MICR? That seems...backwards?
I was thinking that instead of checks being a big part of the incoming funnel,
they were now a small part, off in a corner, and the (presumably, but not
necessarily) lower-speed USB-type readers were sufficient. At a minimum, check
processing CAN be slower than most other forms of payment, which are expected
to be realtime these days.
Looking online, in 2000 the U.S. processed 42B checks/year, down to 9.2B in
2024--a lot more than I would have guessed! But it notes that the 9.2B includes
bank-printed checks sent via billpay, which I'm betting are easier to handle
since they're machine-printed and thus harder to misread. And I know I send a
moderate number of those, certainly more than I hand-write, am guessing that's
more the norm. I used to go through a book of checks a month; nowadays it's
about four/year, mostly to the guy who cleans our gutters and the Girl Scouts
for cookies!
Of course the MICR is only part of the equation: reading the amount is also
important. I'm guessing again but I'm sure 50 years ago--and maybe still 20
years ago--that was mostly human beings doing quick verification, but that
nowadays it's mostly automated.
This is getting off-topic for this list, I fear...my fault, sorry. Payments
stuff is pretty interesting, at least to some of us.
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List<[email protected]> On Behalf Of Rob
Schramm
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2026 10:10 AM
To:[email protected]
Subject: Re: IBM Statement of Direction
I am guessing that the micr support has been moved over to the various print
products and is no longer a hardware requirement.
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