800.922.8501 Online Store Solutions Industries About Resources Support An Introduction to Manual and Secure MICR Printers Share Blog Author: Source Technologies When your clients or members need a check printed, it can be a serious pain. If the printer is behaving that day, and we've all had days when they don't, your teller will need to first gather the information from the client or member, step away from where they're providing assistance, and hope that the printer will print the check the right way, the first time. In addition to being a time-consuming process, it can take even longer if the printer doesn't correctly print the check, requiring the teller to start again, frustrating both the teller and the client or member. It provides opportunities for fraud and makes it harder to track checks going through your system. As digital transformation rolls forward, the financial industry now has new options available for check printing, options that not only speed up the process, but makes it secure as well. One of these options is a secure MICR printer, which makes it much easier and faster to get the check to your client or member. Standing for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, this technology allows machines to scan your checks as they go through, drastically reducing the risk of fraud. But what is a secure MICR printer, how is it different from manually creating checks and how does it improve your operation? Keep reading to learn more about this innovative technology. A Comparison of Manual and Secure MICR Printers Though other printing technologies are used in a wide range of operations, including check printing at home, most companies, and financial institutions have centered on laser printers for their check printing needs. Though these are less expensive than a few other options on the market, they take a while to set up the check, set up the printer, send the file to the printer and hopefully get a check for the client or member on the other end that is actually printed clearly and ready to go. The check paper has to be pre-printed, which is expensive, and as a live, negotiable document, they must be secured when not in use, adding to the time and cost of printing checks for clients or members. The entire process can take eight to ten minutes, but only if it works correctly the first time, leaving your client or member impatiently waiting for their check. In addition, there are other overhead costs that accrue on a daily basis. At the beginning of the day, a pair of tellers have to remove a set number of checks from the vault, which are counted and logged, and again at the end of the day, the day's checks and remaining pre-printed blank checks have to be reconciled and recorded again. When human error comes into play, such as miscounting the number of checks that were removed or are left, or if a teller forgets to record a check that was misprinted, that time adds up quickly, costing your organization significantly. At the same time, in the busy pace of financial institutions, it can be difficult to impossible to determine if the check was printed in error or if you'll have to watch out for fraud in the future. It's also difficult to track these checks through your system, which can cause problems with losing revenue opportunities, and again, the possibility of fraud can't be ignored. But what if you could use better technology for printing checks at your office? By comparison, you could work with a secure MICR check printer. An MICR check printer uses a special type of magnetic toner to print the check, which makes it much harder to forge. It's printed on regular paper, avoiding much of the potential for forgeries to take place. There is no special handling, so it's a much faster process, taking only a couple of minutes from the time the teller starts taking the client or member's information to the point that they have the completed check in hand, which drastically improves their opinion of your customer service. Because the issuing data is captured at the time of printing, it's much easier to audit, remain in compliance, and track the check through your system. MICR check printing drastically improves your printing time, reduces costs, and virtually eliminates fraud. A Better Solution: MICR Check Printing Let's start by taking a solid look at the benefits of using a MICR check printer: Reduce your check issuance time by 75 to 80%, allowing your tellers to serve more customers quickly. Save a little over 90% on the paper costs by being able to use plain paper rather than pre-printed checks. Eliminate bulky multi-part forms that are used to track the checks that have been issued, reducing your paper filing needs. Remove the risk of expensive misdeeds, which can increase your overall costs without gaining additional revenue. Eliminate manual inputs that can cost you payroll time with your tellers as they have to work through the process. Remove the need for check inventory control and secured access, as you'll be able to use ordinary paper. Reduce the risks of fraud to virtually nothing, as MICR check printing requirements are very specific. With these factors in mind, let's look a bit further into these printers. What is MICR? Whether you're looking at MICR ink printers for each teller station or a single MICR toner printer for the entire office, these specialized printers use magnetic ink or toner to help create a document that is difficult to impossible to forge. An MICR laser printer is very efficient in terms of cost and avoiding fraud risk, and in fact must be used to meet ANSI standards, so we highly recommend that our customers go this route when investing in an MICR check printer system, rather than going with MICR ink printers. Let's talk about fraud for a moment. It's estimated that 47% of companies experienced fraud within the last two years, totaling losses of $42 billion. MICR check printer technology can drastically reduce the risk of fraud to your financial institution or organization. There are several types of check fraud that can take place within financial institutions. These include check stock pilfering, where employees steal extra check blanks and use them for gain. Check alteration takes place when the check itself is altered to represent a larger amount, something that isn't easily detectable. Laser check printers often provide the option for check duplication, while MICR printers are secured against this type of fraud. Counterfeit checks are easy to produce when the high-security features of MICR printers are not utilized. Piggybacking puts two checks on the same image, creating the possibility of misuse. Finally, general ledger mismatching can allow fraud by misappropriating funds. Is MICR ink required to print checks? Yes, because using regular toner will not deliver the level of security that you would need when using blank check stock. This leaves your organization or financial institution open to risks from fraud and similar issues. That being said, it still only costs about $0.21 per check for MICR check printing requirements, drastically reducing your overall costs despite the specialized technology that you're using. Who are MICR printers for? Is MICR still needed for your branch or office? Absolutely! The MICR printer delivers outstanding economy, security and time savings, making it a great option for optimizing your overhead expenses and reducing unnecessary costs. Given today's trend towards digital transformation and the evolution of the agile, flexible business, these benefits far outweigh the cost of investment, providing you with solid solutions that will serve your institution well for many years to come. The MICR printer and toner creates machine-readable data on the check itself, allowing you to undertake further automation of your system and reducing the amount of labor that is needed to undertake daily tasks. Furthermore, the MICR printers that we provide to our clients are guaranteed to meet or exceed ANSI X.9 standards for three years, providing you with protection against a wide range of issues that can occur in financial institutions as well as any concerns you may have about the technology behind MICR check printing. But beyond financial institutions, they can be used to prevent fraud in rebate checks, deposit slips, money orders, lending and title companies, WIC checks, insurance documents, accounts payable, payroll and other distributions. Across multiple industries, in businesses both large and small, MICR printers deliver a strong level of security while lowering risk and expense. It works well for live financial documents such as checks, helping you to streamline your office procedures and speeding up the processing time for customer's checks. By making a smart investment into MICR check printer technology, you can enjoy these benefits without a lot of extra expense, allowing you to discover what the 35% of Fortune 2000 companies and 8 out of 10 top banks that work with Source Technologies have over the years, with over 5 billion checks printed to date. In Conclusion When your business relies on check printing technology to service your client or member needs, your system needs to be free of failures, allowing your tellers to serve more people on a daily basis while reducing wait times in your lobby or teller lines. This technology also delivers solid benefits in terms of security and economy of cost, making it a great option to consider to help protect your company's bottom line. Source Technologies has a solid background and extensive experience helping companies implement time-saving, cost-cutting measures for over 30 years that your customers will both notice and appreciate. Our partnership with Lexmark goes back just as far, allowing us to find the solutions you need for your business. At the same time, our secure MICR check printers help you minimize risk to your business while mitigating the expense of waste. You'll enjoy unmatched protection against check fraud issues, while seeing a solid lift in productivity levels of your team. If you're considering moving over to MICR check printer technology, Source Technologies can help. Please feel free to contact us today with any questions, for more details on our MICR laser printer options or to schedule a consultation with one of our experienced professionals. When you're working with Source Technologies, you're working with some of the best minds in the industry. Check Printing in a Work-From-Home Environment: What Do I Need? MICR Ink vs. MICR Toner: What Is MICR Ink? 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