- Cheque Number: The first set of numbers represent the cheque number.
It is a six-digit number. - MICR Code(Magnetic Ink Character Recognition):
It helps a bank to recognize the bank and branch that issued the cheque.
Cheques are sorted through a cheque reading machine that uses this number to identify the bank and branch a cheque belongs to. The MICR number is a nine-digit number, which consists of three parts:
City Code:
The first three digits represent the city code and are the same as the first three-digit of the PIN code of that city.
EX: a bank in Hyderabad will have first three digits of MICR code as 500 (since PIN code for Hyderabad starts with 500)Bank Code:
The next three digits represent the bank code. Every bank has a unique code assigned to it.
EX: ICICI bank’s code is 229, for HDFC it is 240, and so on.Branch Code:
The last three digits represent the branch code.
Thus you can easily find which bank and branch a cheque belongs to by looking at its MICR number, and vice versa. - Bank account Number:
The third set of six-digit numbers represents your account number (It consists of a few digits of your account number). - Transaction ID:
The last two digits tell whether a cheque is a local cheque or payable at par cheque.29, 30 and 31 represents payable at par cheque,
09, 10, and 11 represent local cheque. Payable at par cheque can be cashed at any branch of the issuing bank.
A local cheque can be cashed only at the issuing branch. So, if you deposit a cheque in your bank, with code 10 written at the bottom of the cheque,
it’ll take a few days for the money to come in your account. However, since most of the branches, these days are CBS (Core Banking Solution) enabled, so the cheques are generally payable at par.
All these numbers are written in a different font style with a special ink that contains magnetic material so that it can be recognized by Magnetic Character Ink Reader.