The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has directed commercial banks in the country to work with check printers and personalizers over the surge in substandard ‘Magnetic Ink Character Recognition line’ (MICR Line) in their cheques.
This will reduce the rising number of MICR Line rejects during cheque-related transactions, the apex bank said in a recent circular dated October 9, 2023.
MICR Line are numbers printed on a cheque whi which may include the bank routing number, account number, cheque number, cheque amount, and other information, that are printed near the bottom of a cheque in magnetic ink in accordance with the Nigeria Cheque Standards.
In the circular signed by Sam Okejere, Director, Banking Services department, the CBN said it has noticed the surge in MICR rejects, warning banks to comply with the circular from November 1, 2023, or face sanctions.
According to the apex bank, “It has come to our notice that MICR rejects have been on the increase and in furtherance of the Bank’s effort to reduce the number, Deposit Money Bank (DMBs) are hereby directed to contact their personalizers and reiterate the need to revalidate the MICR code-line details for correctness in accordance with the NCS and NICPAS version 2.0.
“Furthermore, both the presenting and receiving banks should also thoroughly examine their in-house cheque processing equipment to ensure that they are properly calibrated and supervised to eliminate distortion of image and data being transmitted during the cheque truncation process.
“Please note that the bank will monitor compliance with the provision of this circular and any bank with MICR reject starting from November 1, 2023, would be penalized in accordance with the Sanctions Grid.”
