ISO/IEC 7812 ''Identification cards – Identification of issuers'' is an international standard published jointly by the

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in A ...

(ISO) and the

International Electrotechnical Commission The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and ...

(IEC). It specifies "a numbering system for the identification of the card issuers, the format of the issuer identification number (IIN) and the primary account number (PAN)", and procedures for registering IINs. It was first published in 1989. ISO/IEC 7812 has two parts: * ''Part 1: Numbering system'' * ''Part 2: Application and registration procedures'' The registration authority for Issuer Identification Numbers (IINs) is the

American Bankers Association The American Bankers Association (ABA) is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association for the U.S. banking industry, founded in 1875. They lobby for banks of all sizes and charters, including community banks, regional and money center banks, sav ...

. An IIN is currently six digits in length. The leading digit is the ''major industry identifier'' (MII), followed by 5 digits, which together make up the IIN. This IIN is paired with an ''individual account identification'' number, and a single digit

checksum A checksum is a small-sized block of data derived from another block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. By themselves, checksums are often used to verify data ...

. In 2015, the industry began work on implementing a change to ISO/IEC 7812 to increase the length of the IIN to 8 digits. The 2017 revision of the standard defines the new eight digit IIN and outlines a timeline for conversion of existing six digits IINs to eight digit IINs.

Major industry identifier

The first (leading) digit of the IIN identifies the major industry of the card issuer. MII 9 has been assigned to national standards bodies for national use. The first digit is a 9 followed by a three-digit numeric country code numeric-3 country code from

ISO 3166-1 ISO 3166-1 (''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes'') is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It ...

. National Numbering Systems are managed by ISO-member national standards bodies. The US National Numbering system is managed by the

American National Standards Institute The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The orga ...

Issuer identifier number

The first six or eight digits, including the major industry identifier, compose the '' issuer identifier number'' (IIN) which identifies the issuing organization. The IIN is sometimes referred to as a "bank identification number" (BIN). The IIN's use is much broader than identification of a bank. IINs are used by companies other than banks.

IIN Register

The official "ISO Register of Issuer Identification Numbers", is not available to the general public. It is only available to institutions who hold IINs published in the register, financial networks and processors. Institutions are required to sign a licensing agreement before they are given access to the register. Several IINs are well known, especially those representing credit card issuers.

Individual account identification

In conjunction with the IIN, card issuers assign an account number to a card holder. The account number is variable in length with a maximum of 12 digits when used in conjunction with a six digit IIN. When using an eight digit IIN, the maximum total length of the primary account number (PAN) remains at 19 digits. The PAN comprises the IIN, the individual account identifier, and the

check digit A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection on identification numbers, such as bank account numbers, which are used in an application where they will at least sometimes be input manually. It is analogous to a binary parit ...

, so when using an eight digit IIN, the maximum length of an individual account identifier would only be 10 digits.

Check digit

The final digit is a

which is calculated using the

Luhn algorithm The Luhn algorithm or Luhn formula, also known as the " modulus 10" or "mod 10" algorithm, named after its creator, IBM scientist Hans Peter Luhn, is a simple checksum formula used to validate a variety of identification numbers, such as credit ...

, defined in Annex B of ISO/IEC 7812-1.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ISO IEC 7812 American Bankers Association Identifiers #07812