The ABA routing number is used by the Federal Reserve Bank to transfer funds and by the ACH to process debit or credit payments and for other Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. The ABA routing number is administrated under the sponsorship of the American Bankers Association, which was designed in 1910.
The ABA routing number appears twice on a Cheque i.e. in the fraction form and the MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) form. Both the forms give the same information but there is a slight difference i.e. MICR form is printed in magnetic ink and it’s readable by machines. Whereas the friction forms are used for manual processing.
Generally MICR form is served as a backup in Cheque processing to prevent it from fraud and other precautionary measures.
The 1st two digits of the 9 digits ABA number must be in the range of 00 through 12, 21 through 32, 61 through 72, or 80.
Rest of all digits is associated as follows:
- 00 is used by the Government of The United State.
- 01 through 12 are the "normal" routing numbers, and correspond to the 12 Federal Reserve Banks. For example, 0160-0959-3 is the routing number for Bank of America incoming wires in Boston, with the initial "01" indicating the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
- 21 through 32 were assigned only to thrift institutions (e.g. credit unions and savings banks) through 1985, but are no longer assigned .
- 61 through 72 are special purpose routing numbers designated for use by non-bank payment processors and clearinghouses and are termed Electronic Transaction Identifiers (ETIs), and correspond to the normal routing number, plus 60.
- 80 is used for traveler's cheques.
Sample of ABA Routing Number:
