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FED ERAL R E SER VE BANK O F DALLAS Dallas, Texas, March 6,1963 To All Banks in the Eleventh Federal Reserve District: The latest survey by Federal Reserve banks to measure progress in the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition Program of the American Bankers Association indicates that al most 79 percent of the checks cleared through the Federal Reserve System bear the drawee bank’s MICR transit number. However, only 63 percent of those cleared through the Reserve bank offices of this District are preprinted, which is one of the lowest per centages in the System. An analysis of magnetic ink printing by banks located in states in this area shows the following information: Percent of Preprinting States Arizona Louisiana New Mexico Oklahoma Texas Banks in 11th District A ll Banks in State 62 55 68 46 63 71 64 74 66 63 It has been the policy of this bank to cooperate with the American Bankers Associa tion by assisting in the promotion of the MICR program, amount encoding checks in magnetic ink for banks having high-speed equipment, and planning for the installation in the Reserve bank offices of this District of high-speed equipment when a reasonable per centage of checks are preprinted with the MICR transit number. The Federal Reserve Bank o f Dallas and its branches encouraged banks to adopt the MICR program by articles, speeches, surveys, and related publicity. In the fall of 1961 the Reserve bank installed 22 proof inscriber machines at its Dallas office and shortly there after installed others at its San Antonio and Houston offices. Finally, in early 1963 a con tract was signed for the delivery of a high-speed check handling system at the Dallas bank. High-speed systems will be installed at the other offices as soon as practicable. In company with the Reserve bank’s installation, there are a number of commercial banks in the District that either are using or plan to use in the near future high-speed equipment for the processing of transit items. Therefore, banks are urged to move for ward with their preprinting program as rapidly as possible in order to maximize the efficiency of the check collection system. Survey figures of the Eleventh District are furnished on the other side of this letter. Yours very truly, Watrous H. Irons President This publication was digitized and made available by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Historical Library (FedHistory@dal.frb.org) BREAKDOWN BY RESERVE OFFICES OF THE ELEVENTH DISTRICT Number of Checks Surveyed Number of Checks Conforming Percentage of Conformity Dallas City Country 41,045 260,950 35,818 160,889 87 62 El Paso City Country 10,608 30,548 8,191 20,348 77 67 Houston City Country 23,989 132,927 16,369 86,088 68 65 San Antonio City Country 27,053 141,023 16,144 77,752 60 55 Office BREAKDOWN FOR CERTAIN LARGER POINTS Number of Checks Surveyed Number of Checks Conforming Percentage of Conformity Abilene, Texas 3,043 1,771 58 Amarillo, Texas 5,596 3,034 54 Austin, Texas 7,373 5,048 68 Beaumont, Texas 7,510 6,666 89 Corpus Christi, Texas 9,176 5,670 62 Fort Worth, Texas 7,859 6,397 81 Lubbock, Texas 5,370 2,903 54 Waco, Texas 3,242 1,641 51 Wichita Falls, Texas 4,923 3,378 69 Tucson, Arizona 2,138 1,446 68 Shreveport, Louisiana 10,096 5,054 50 Roswell, New Mexico 1,186 816 69 564 238 42 City Durant, Oklahoma
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