There are numerous outfits that you can go to online to order blank checks. And of the small number that I have used, all of them let me just type in my routing number and account number and other information that appears printed on the check.

Your use of Plaid would exclude me from your service for two reasons:

1: I bank at a small regional credit union that is almost impossible to get linked with Plaid.

2: Plaid hypothetically lets you do a lot more than just learn my account and routing number. I would not trust a new start up with that level of access.

Given that relatively few things require the MICR numbers to be printed with magnetized ink anymore, it’s not clear what fraud someone could commit with your service that they couldn’t commit just as easily commit in a dozen different ways and that we can’t really prevent without a systematic overhaul of the paper check system

I don’t think they mean it prevents fraud in general, I think they mean it prevents fraud on their service specifically.