MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. It is the band of oddly-shaped digits along the bottom edge of a cheque, printed in magnetic ink so a sorting machine can read them reliably even if the cheque is creased, stamped or grubby.
What the digits mean
On an Indian cheque the band carries, left to right:
- The cheque number
- A nine-digit MICR code identifying city, bank and branch
- The account number
- A transaction code
The nine-digit MICR code breaks down as three digits for the city, three for the bank and three for the branch.
MICR code versus IFSC
These get confused constantly. They identify the same branch for different purposes:
| MICR code | IFSC | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | 9 digits | 11 characters, letters and digits |
| Used for | Cheque clearing | Electronic transfers (NEFT, RTGS, IMPS) |
| Printed | In the MICR band | Usually on the cheque face and in the passbook |
If someone asks for your IFSC to send money electronically, the MICR code is not a substitute.
The rule for anyone printing cheques
Never print anything over the MICR band. Ordinary printer ink is not magnetic and it obscures the characters underneath — which turns a machine-readable cheque into one that has to be handled manually, or gets returned.
This is why cheque layouts keep a clear zone along the bottom edge. If you build your own layout from a scan, keep every field well clear of that strip. See creating a cheque layout.
You do not print the MICR band
A common misconception, worth stating plainly: the MICR band is pre-printed by the bank on the cheque stock, in magnetic ink, before you ever see the leaf. Cheque printing software fills in the payee, amount and date — it does not produce the MICR line, and an ordinary printer could not do so correctly even if asked.
Software that offers to print MICR lines is aimed at a different market — chiefly the United States, where blank cheque stock is printed in-house. That is not how cheques work in India or the Gulf, where the bank issues the numbered book.
