Print Solutions Magazine

Editor’s note: The following letter was part of a discussion about check processing that took place on DMIA's members-only broadcast email system.

We’re having a check processing issue with a bank. We’re providing our client with a stock pressure seal check. Our manufacturer prints the MICR line onto the check. All other client specific information is printed by the client's software package at the time the payroll is generated.

On this particular check, the warning band is at the bottom of the check, printed in PMS ink. There's no magnetic printing in the 5⁄8-inch clear band, except for the MICR line. The bank tells our client they cannot process the checks because the warning band encroaches into the 5 ⁄8-inch area. Furthermore, they’re telling our client they have incurred approximately $25,000 in extra billable fees because of the processing problems!

Our manufacturer has tested the checks and says they test fine. They have sent us and our client the printouts from the tests which show the checks to be compliant with ANSI standards.

How do we deal with the bank on this issue when we are “standing outside” and the bank would seem to be the final authority? I happen to believe this stock check is being successfully processed at multiple banks around the country.

John Loftis, President
Innovative Business Products Inc.
Winston-Salem, N.C.

Is the bank using older electro-mechanical reader/sorter processing equipment, new image processing equipment or a combination? I suspect they have newer equipment, because the old stuff never cared if there was non-magnetic printing in the clear band area. The bank may also be getting bank charges from other banks in the Federal Reserve System as a result of trying to process these “offending checks.”

The bank claims they cannot process the checks because the warning band encroaches into the 5 ⁄8-inch clear band area. The ANSI specs have not been updated to eliminate any printing in the 5 ⁄8-inch clear band. The rule still states that “a negotiable document will be free and clear of all magnetic printing 0.625 inches along the entire bottom length of the document, ” which means there can still be printing within the 5⁄8 inches clear band area.

Many banks use security check stock from Standard Register to print out their cashier's checks and the stock they purchase has a warning band below the MICR line. Ask the bank if they use this stock and whether or not they process their own cashier's checks or any other bank’s cashier’s checks. Eleven different states, as well as many counties, use checks with the same warning band. The great majority of personal checks have a lot of background noise in the 5 ⁄8-inch strip, and yet those checks clear the system in a breeze.

Changing banks may be your customer’s easiest choice. Getting them to do it is another story. I handled a similar situation as Check 21 was going into effect. My customer's bank wanted them to change the ink color on the check stock, remove the void pantograph and all warning borders even though the bank in question used all of these features and wasn't going to change their own stock. I told the CFO of my customer that I could remove everything the bank wanted, but to ensure that I was indemnified from responsibility for future check fraud by removing what the bank wanted, I required a letter, signed by the CFO and my customer's law firm, acknowledging that the bank had not protected them before I installed a secure check printing system. They hadn't suffered any check fraud losses since the installation was put in and the removal of what the bank wanted from the check stock placed the customer at risk.

My customer was willing to give me the letter. The very large law firm representing my customer was more suspicious. After the customer's law firm listened to all of the reasons why I was brought to the customer, the track record we established by eliminating all check fraud for more than two years and the fact we were trying to protect the customer where the bank had failed to protect the customer in the past, the firm said they'd direct a letter to the bank’s board of directors demanding similar indemnification. The bank’s legal department refused to issue the letter and my customer withdrew more than $1 billion in cash assets as they switched to another bank.

Dick Gray, CDC, Owner
Xtension Technologies, Inc.
Laguna Hills, Calif.

Editor’s note: The following letter was part of a discussion about pre-flighting that took place on DMIA's members-only listserv.

We employ three full-time graphic designers who spend a lot of their time preflighting jobs we did not design. This causes several problems: it pulls them away from the jobs they are creating, they don't like it and tend to get crabby, and I can’t bill for it unless there are problems with the files and we bill for corrections.

We have had problems in the past sending jobs we have not preflighted to vendors and getting bad proofs because the files were incorrect! The result has been lost time and frustrated customers. Some of our manufacturers do a good job at preflighting and some have the attitude that they are a trade printer and expect clean files.

What are other distributors doing with this? Are you just sending disks to vendors? Are you using preflight software? I am not interested in doing it myself.

If we are in the business of providing quality printed products to our customers, then what are we willing to do to earn/keep this business?

It seems to me that if we don’t add value at some point along the way, we aren’t going to be needed. If you believe your customer should provide press-ready files to you, then maybe they can also find someone on the web who sells direct and will print for less.

I take a lot of files and do the work to make them press-ready. My sell price allows me to make a profit, which compensates me for this work. When the product is reordered, I usually do less work and I still make the same profit.

Robb Tipton, Owner
Star Business Products
Kemah, Texas