ISO/IEC 7813

ISO/IEC 7813 is a standard that defines properties of financial transaction cards, e.g. ATM or credit cards.

The standard defines:

• physical characteristics, e.g. 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:

Embossed characters 

by reference to ISO/IEC 7811

Embossing of expiration date 

the format, e.g. 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 or ISO/IEC 15693-1, as appropriate

Magnetic tracks

Track 1

The Track 1 structure is specified as:

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

The maximum record length is 79 alphanumeric characters.

Track 2

The Track 2 structure is specified as:

• STX : Start sentinel ";"
• PAN : Primary Account Number, up to 19 digits, as defined in ISO/IEC 7812-1
• FS : 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
• ETX : End sentinel "?"
• LRC : Longitudinal redundancy check, calculated according to ISO/IEC 7811-2

The maximum record length is 40 numeric digits.