Payment card number

A payment card number, or simply a card number, is

the card identier found on payment cards, such as credit
cards and debit cards, as well as stored-value cards, gift
cards and other similar cards. In some situations the card
number is referred to as a bank card number. The card
number is merely a card identier and does not identify
the account to which it is linked by the issuing company,
nor does it identify the cardholder. The card number
identies the issuer of the card, which is then electronically associated by the issuing organization with one of
its customers and then to the customers designated bank
accounts. In the case of stored-value type cards, there is Partial IIN on a credit card (both printed and embossed)
no necessary association with a particular customer. Card
numbers are allocated in accordance with ISO/IEC 7812.
The card number is usually prominently embossed on the
2 Issuer identication number
front of a payment card.

(IIN)
The payment card number diers from the Bank Identier Code (BIC/ISO 9362, a normalized codealso
known as Business Identier Code, Bank International
The rst six digits of a card number (including the initial
Code, and SWIFT code). It also diers from Universal
MII digit) are known as the issuer identication number
Payment Identication Code, another identier for a bank
(IIN). These identify the card issuing institution that isaccount in the United States.
sued the card to the card holder. The rest of the number
is allocated by the card issuer. The card numbers length
is its number of digits. Many card issuers print the entire
IIN and account number on their card.
1

Structure

In the United States, IINs are also used in NCPDP pharmacy claims to identify processors, and are printed on all
pharmacy insurance cards. IINs are the primary routing
The leading six digits of the card number is the "issuer mechanism for real-time claims.
identication number (IIN)", sometimes referred to as
the bank identication number (BIN)". The remaining The ISO Register of Issuer Identication Numbers
numbers on the card are referred to as the primary ac- database is managed by the American Bankers Associacount number or PAN. IINs and PANS have a certain tion. ABA is the Registration Authority for this standard
level of internal structure and share a common numbering and is responsible for allocating IINs to issuers.
scheme set by ISO/IEC 7812. Payment card numbers can Online merchants may use IIN lookups to help validate
be up to 19 digits, as follows:
transactions. For example, if a cards IIN indicates a bank
in one country, while the customers billing address is in
another, the transaction may call for extra scrutiny.
a six-digit[1] Issuer Identication Number (IIN), the On November 8, 2004, MasterCard and Diners Club
rst digit of which is the Major Industry Identier formed an alliance. Diners Club cards issued in Canada
(MII)
and the United States start with 54 or 55 and are treated
as MasterCards worldwide. International cards use the
36 prex and are treated as MasterCards in Canada and
a variable length (up to 12 digits) individual account the United States, but are treated as Diners Club cards
identier
elsewhere. Diners Club Internationals web site makes no
reference to old 38 prex numbers, and they can be presumed reissued under the 55 or 36 IIN prex. Eective
a single check digit calculated using the Luhn algo- October 16, 2009, Diners Club cards beginning with 30,
rithm[2]
36, 38 or 39 have been processed by Discover Card.[14]
1

On November 3, 2014, MasterCard announced that they

were introducing a new series of BIN ranges that begin
with a 2 (222100272099). The 2 series BINs will
be processed the same as the 5155 series BINs are
today. They will become active 14 October 2016.
On July 23, 2014 JSC NSPK was established in Russian
Federation. Joint Stock Company National System of
Payment Cards (NSPK) is the operator of Mir National
Payment System. The main initiatives of NSPK are to
create the national payment system infrastructure and to
issue a national payment card Mir.
Eective October 1, 2006, Discover began using the entire 65 prex, not just 650. Also, similar to the MasterCard/Diners agreement, China Union Pay cards are now
treated as Discover cards and accepted on the Discover
network.
Whilst the vast majority of Visas account ranges describe
16 digit card numbers there are still a few (40 as of 11
Dec. 2013) account ranges dedicated to 13 digit PANs
and several (439 as of 11 Dec. 2013) account ranges
where the issuer can mix 13 and 16 digit card numbers.
Visas VPay brand can specify PAN lengths from 13 to
19 digits and so card numbers of more than 16 digits are
now being seen.
Switch was re-branded as Maestro in mid-2007.[15] In
2011, UK Domestic Maestro (formerly Switch) was
aligned with the standard international Maestro proposition with the retention of a few residual country specic
rules.
EMV Certication requires acceptance of a 19-digit Visa
card (ADVT 6.1.1 Test Case 2) and Discover Card (E2E
Test Plan v1.3, Test Case 06).

2.1

Canadian bank card numbering

Bank card numbers issued by Canadian banks also follow

a pattern for their systems:

Security measures

To reduce the risk of credit card fraud, various techniques

are used to prevent the dissemination of bank card numbers. These include:
Format-preserving encryption: in which the account
number is replaced with a strongly encrypted version
which retains the format of the card data including
non sensitive parts of the eld such as rst six and
last four digits. This permits data eld protection
without changing payment IT systems and applications. A common use is for protecting card data
from the point of capture in a secure reader to the
payment processing host end-to-end to mitigate risk
of data compromise in systems such as the Point of

REFERENCES

Sale (POS). AES-FF1 Format-Preserving Encryption is dened in NIST Specication SP800-38G.

PAN truncation: in which only some of the digits on
a card are displayed or printed on receipts. The PCI
DSS standard dictates that only the rst six and last
four digits of the PAN may be printed on a receipt or
displayed in cases other than where a business need
requires the full PAN. US federal law (FACTA) allows only the display of the last 5 digits. In order
to comply with both PCI DSS requirements and US
federal law, generally only the last four digits are
provided elsewhere to allow an individual to identify the card used.
Tokenization: in which an articial account number
(token) is printed, stored or transmitted in place of
the true account number.

4 See also
Bank account
Carding (fraud)
Card security code
International Bank Account Number
Routing transit number
ISO 9362SWIFT Code or BIC Code

5 References
[1] What your credit card numbers mean. Retrieved 201012-07.
[2] ISO/IEC 7812-1:2006 Identication cards Identication of issuers Part 1: Numbering system
[3] Card Security Features (PDF). American Express. January 2001. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 March
2006. Retrieved 2006-04-05.
[4] American Express Fraud Prevention Handbook (PDF).
p. 13. Retrieved 2006-04-05.
[5] Bankcard Association of Australia. Archived from the
original on 6 April 2006. Retrieved 2006-04-05.
[6] China UnionPay Cards. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
[7] MasterCard Diners Club Alliance. Retrieved 2006-0405.
[8] Discover Bulletin for VARs Feb 2015 (PDF). Retrieved
2015-08-14.
[9] Diners Club - Fraud Management. Retrieved 2007-0126.

[10] Discover Network - IIN Range Update, 8.2 (PDF).

September 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
[11] Discover Network IIN Range Update, 9.2 (PDF).
September 2009.
[12] Laser Card Services Ltd.. 28 February 2009.
[13] Maestro Global Rules (PDF). MasterCard. 9 November
2012.
[14] Discover Network - IIN Range Update, 9.1 (PDF). October 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
[15] Switch to Maestro. Archived from the original on 8 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-20.

External links
H.P. Luhn and Automatic Indexing
What your credit card numbers mean

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Payment card number Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_card_number?oldid=729479722 Contributors: Robert Merkel,

The Anome, Edward, Bdesham, Dreamword, Delirium, Pratyeka, Aimaz, Cema, Kimmykun, Radiojon, Ccady, Scott Sanchez, Sharkey,
Patcat88, DocWatson42, Pascal666, Rchandra, ConradPino, CaribDigita, Oknazevad, Freakofnurture, Wesha, Discospinster, Mrevan,
James.pole, Krellis, Fat pig73, ProhibitOnions, Aaarrrggh, Scriberius, Prashanthns, Tardis, Chobot, Hydrargyrum, Stephenb, Daniel
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AndyF150, AntiVandalBot, Storkk, MER-C, Freddicus, Greensburger, Bongwarrior, VoABot II, Tandrasz, Dysanovic, Nigel Jewell,
Nposs, MartinBot, CliC, Zeus, Seoidau, Bogey97, Thomas Larsen, Richard D. LeCour, ThePointblank, Fowl2, Hellno2, DagnyB, Dave
Andrew, LionMans Account, Ryan032, GDonato, Lradrama, BwDraco, Andy Dingley, Satur9nine, Turgan, Petrolium55, Twisty7867,
Logan, Fiveminutes, Tresiden, Bmandl~enwiki, StaticGull, Almufasa, Dust Filter, Tdrpic, Purefusion, ClueBot, Enthusiast01, Gaia Octavia Agrippa, Control-alt-delete, Excirial, Lartoven, XLinkBot, Mitch Ames, Addbot, Cupivistine Noscere?, Fieldday-sunday, Leszek
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as custard, Dalba, Groundlabs, Hajatvrc, Wiking, DASHBot, Moneytech, Dewritech, GoingBatty, Iamckesc, Tommy2010, Starligh1,
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Bankcode, Dfoverdx, Eliasomarz, Nyashinski, Cryptostandards, Sairp, Ithamalfonso,melog, Cdpjcdb, Vav1288, Thanhnhantran, Yezooz,
Raymondmimick, MrEnyi, Abel Lawrence, Ghevek, Yuri ice and Anonymous: 316

7.2

Images

File:Credit_card-first_4_digits.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Credit_card-first_4_digits.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: User:Mattes

7.3

Content license

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