How to parse MICR line data?

Question

I have a digital check scanner that is able to capture the MICR line from the check. It will return the MICR line in raw format as a string, with delimiters to separate the account number, routing number, and check number. However, each bank formats this MICR line differently, so there's no standard way to parse this data.

Some companies I have tried are Inlite Research Inc and Accusoft Pegasus. The API from Inlite Research works for some banks, but cannot read Bank of America checks correctly. I'm still testing out the API from Accusoft.

What I am asking is if anyone know of an API that will accurately parse the MICR line for the different components. Is there an API that will let me add new definitions of check format if I encounter a new check that the API cannot handle correctly? Or, if anyone know how to or has written a routine to parse the MICR line.

I would appreciate any help I can get. Thank you.

Answer 1

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't see any answers to the question so I thought nobody responded.

To answer the questions above, I found a solution after thinking the problem over and talking with various vendors. The Check scanner that I'm using is already able to read the MICR line. The problem lies in parsing the MICR line for relevant information such as the routing transit number, account number, check/serial number, and amount (if there is one). After speaking with a handful of 3rd party companies and trying out available trial versions of MICR parser, I come to the conclusion that there is no universal parser out there. I'm still faced with the problem of the non-comforming On-Us field. Each bank formats this field differently. Sometimes the symbols are arranged differently as well. So, I decided to write my own parser. I think this is the most logical way to proceed as I've been informed by these 3rd party vendors that they each roll their own parsing software.

The way I wrote the parser was I kept a table of MICR line patterns. Each time I encounter a new MICR line format, I will update this table. My parser will match any check scanned against this table and if it finds a match, it will use that pattern to parse the relevant information.

I hope my experience and the solution I came up with will also help those who ran across the same issue.

Thank you for all those who responded and good luck.