Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Check Fraud: A Guide to Avoiding Losses

Significant Terms

Some technical terms relating to checks and drafts are worth defining.

Customer – a person with an account at the bank.

Drawee – a party, typically a bank, that is required to pay out the money when a check or draft is presented. The drawee is usually the payor bank.

Drawer – a person writing a check. The drawer is typically a customer of the drawee.

MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) – numbers at the bottom of a check, printed in magnetic ink, that can be read by machines. The numbers usually are encoded with the name and address of the drawee bank, the account number, and the check number. The dollar amount is added to the MICR line during check processing.

Payee – a party entitled, by the creation of a draft or check, to receive funds from a drawee.

Presentment – the delivery of a check or draft to the drawee or the drawer for payment.

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