Identification Cards – Identification of Issuers (ISO/IEC 7812)

Appearing in either physical or digital form, identification cards are integral to the operations of enterprises in numerous industries, serving the straightforward yet intricate purpose of identifying an individual. The shared international system for numbering identification cards and the application and registration procedures for issuer identification numbers (IINs) is established by the ISO/IEC 7812 standard.

The primary account number (PAN) of an identification card (such as a credit card) consists of three main components: the IIN (a number that identifies the card issuer), the individual account number (a number assigned by the card issuer for the purpose of identifying an individual account), and a check digit (a digit calculated on all the preceding digits of the PAN and computed according to the Luhn formula).

The first digits in an IIN (and a PAN) are generally indicative of the type of organization in which they are used. For example, IINs beginning with “80” are for use in healthcare institutions and those beginning with “89” are to be used in telecommunications.

The specifications for this numbering system and the format of IINs and PANs are addressed in ISO/IEC 7812-1:2017 – Identification cards – Identification of issuers – Part 1: Numbering system, the first part of the standard for identification cards.

Alternatively, ISO/IEC 7812-2:2017 – Identification cards – Identification of issuers – Part 2: Application and registration procedures, the second part of the overall standard, covers the procedures for application and registration of IINs.

More information, as well as the application for IIN, is available here: Issuer Identification Number (IIN)

ISO/IEC 7812-1:2017 – Identification cards – Identification of issuers – Part 1: Numbering system and ISO/IEC 7812-2:2017 – Identification cards – Identification of issuers – Part 2: Application and registration procedures can be acquired together as the ISO/IEC 7812 – Identification Cards Package, available only on the ANSI Webstore.