New Mandatory Cheque Specifications

Your cheques must conform to these new specifications by June 30th, 2007

From the CPA website:

The Canadian Payments Association (CPA) has published new specifications for Canadian cheques in preparation for the transition to image-based clearing. Under the new specifications, all cheques used by customers of financial institutions operating in Canada will require some changes. The new specifications, as outlined in CPA Standard 006, Part A, are necessary to ensure that high-quality cheque images can be captured, both for clearing purposes and for delivery to clients, and to enhance processing efficiency.

• 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 accommodated for cheques using the ISO date format (YYYYMMDD).
• A mandatory serial number in the MICR line encoded on the bottom of the cheque (until now the serial number has been optional)
• An increase in the minimum length of a cheque from 6” to 6 ¼”, or 15.88 cm, to ensure there is sufficient space to accommodate the mandatory serial number in the MICR line.
• Standardized positions for key fields on the cheque, such as the date field and the amount in figures.
• Disallowance of elements that may hinder the capture of images or data from the cheques (e.g. inverse 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).
• A provision to ensure that security features do not interfere with key data, or “areas of interest” as defined in Standard 006, Part A, either prior to imaging or post imaging. New printing requirements on the reverse of the cheque so that image capture can be verified.
• Some revisions to technical specifications (e.g. maximum Print Contrast Signal) to ensure high-quality images can be captured.