ISO/IEC 7813

ISO/IEC 7813 is an international standard codified by the International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission that defines properties of financial transaction cards, such as ATM or credit cards.^[1]

Scope

The standard defines:^{[citation needed]}

physical characteristics, such as size, shape, location of magnetic stripe, etc.
magnetic track data structures

Physical characteristics

ISO/IEC 7813 specifies the following physical characteristics of the card, mostly by reference to other standards:^{[citation needed]}

Embossed characters: by reference to ISO/IEC 7811
Embossing of expiration date: the format (MM/YY or MM-YY)
Magnetic stripe: by reference to ISO/IEC 7811
Integrated circuit with contacts: by reference to ISO/IEC 7816-1
Integrated circuit without contacts: by reference to ISO/IEC 10536-1, ISO/IEC 14443-1, and ISO/IEC 15693-1

Magnetic tracks

Track 1

Track 1 can store up to 79 alphanumeric characters. ISO 7813 specifies the following structure for track 1 data:^[2]

SS : Start sentinel "%"
FC : Format code "B" (The format described here. Format "A" is reserved for proprietary use.)
PAN : Payment card number 4400664987366029, up to 19 digits
FS : Field separator "^"
NM : Name, 2 to 26 characters (including separators, where appropriate, between surname, first name etc.)
FS : Field separator "^"
ED : Expiration data, 4 digits or "^"
SC : Service code, 3 digits or "^"
DD : Discretionary data, balance of characters
ES : End sentinel "?"
LRC : Longitudinal redundancy check, calculated according to ISO/IEC 7811-2

Examples

%B4815881002867896^YATES/EUGENE JOHN ^37829821000123456789?

%B4815881002861896^YATES/EUGENE L ^^^356858 00998000000?

Track 2

Track 2 can store up to 40 numeric or special characters; it uses a lower density magnetic encoding than Track 1 but a more compact character encoding. ISO 7813 specifies the following structure for track 2 data:^[2]

SS : Start sentinel ";"
PAN : Primary Account Number, up to 19 digits, as defined in ISO/IEC 7812-1
FS : Field separator "="
ED : Expiration date, YYMM or "=" if not present
SC : Service code, 3 digits or "=" if not present
DD : Discretionary data, balance of available digits
ES : End sentinel "?"
LRC : Longitudinal redundancy check, calculated according to ISO/IEC 7811-2

Track 3

Track 3 uses the same density as track 1 but has the same character encoding as track 2, allowing it to store 107 numeric characters.^[2] It is virtually unused by the major worldwide networks and often isn't present on payment cards.^{[citation needed]}

A notable exception to this is Germany, where Track 3 content was used nationally as the primary source of authorization and clearing information for debit card processing prior to the adoption of the "SECCOS" ICC standards. Track 3 is standardized nationally to contain both the cardholder's bank account number and branch sort code (BLZ).^{[citation needed]}