NEW CPA
Standards -June 30, 2008
What you need to know about changes to your company’s cheques
The
Canadian Payments Association (CPA) has announced changes to modernize
Canada’s cheque clearing system by incorporating 'cheque imaging’ to
make cheque processing more efficient and effective. By December 31,
2006 all cheques must be revised to meet
the CPA’s new specifications.
What does this mean for your
business?
If you currently order your cheques
directly from your financial institution or one of their suppliers, as
of April 2005, all cheques are being produced with the new CPA
requirements.
Cheque printers, software
providers and organizations that print their own cheques
are strongly encouraged to provide
pre-production
samples of their new cheques to their financial
institution’s Quality Assurance Division
to verify that they meet the new specifications.
Key changes to
the cheque specifications include:
-
adoption
of a numeric date field in one of three
specified format (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 Ľ”, 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.
For a sample of the new
cheque format,
click here.
Contact your local bank if
you are unsure whether your cheques will meet these new
requirements.
