Definition of Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)

digital characters on the bottom edge of a paper check containing the issuing bank's ABA transit number (bank identifier) and check routing symbol (denoting funds availability). When checks are cleared through the banking system, the dollar amount of the check is added to the machine readable MICR line. Development of MICR in the 1950s greatly facilitated check clearing, enabling banks to virtually automate the handling of billions of checks every year.