lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (10/11/83)
Sometime ago, there was a request for information regarding the data
format of the magstripes on banking cards. At the time, I was unable
to find an old message of mine that I sent to Arpa sometime back
which contained that information.
However, I was finally able to locate the original message, and
I have extracted the information requested...
-------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTOMATIC TRANSACTION MAGNETIC STRIPE FORMAT
--------------------------------------------
ANSI X4.16 (1976) ISO 3554
------------------------------------------------- <-- top edge of card
.223"
------------------------------------------------- <-----
TRACK 1 IATA .110" |
------------------------------------------------- |
TRACK 2 ABA .110" mag stripe
------------------------------------------------- |
TRACK 3 THRIFT .110" |
------------------------------------------------- <-----
TRACK 1: developed by the International Air Transportation Assoc. (IATA),
contains alphanumeric info for automation of airline ticketing
or other reservation database applications.
TRACK 2: developed by the American Bankers Assoc. (ABA), contains numeric
info for automation of financial transactions.
This track is also used by most systems which require an
identification number and a minimum of other control info.
TRACK 3: developed by the Thrift Industry, contains info, some of which
is intended to be changed (re-recorded) with each transaction,
e.g. cash dispensers which can operate "offline".
density in bits char length in bits info content
per inch including parity bit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 1: 210 7 79 alphanumeric chars
TRACK 2: 75 5 40 numeric chars
TRACK 3: 210 5 107 numeric chars
Information is read right to left beginning with the Start Sentinel (SS)
character located at the right edge of the card.
TRACK 1:
LRC | ES | DISCRETIONARY DATA | FS | NAME (26 char max.) | SS
(coded char set: 6 bit subset of ASCII plus parity)
TRACK 2:
LRC | ES | DISCRETIONARY DATA | FS | ACCOUNT NUMBER | SS
(coded char set: BCD 4 bit subset plus parity)
TRACK3:
LRC | ES | DISCRET. DATA | AS | USE AND SECURITY DATA | FS | ACCOUNT # | SS
(coded char set: BCD 4 bit subset plus parity)
SS Start Sentinel
FS Field Separator
AS Account Separator
ES End Sentinel
LRC Longitudinal Redundancy Check
For error detection an odd parity bit is included in each character and
a longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) character is encoded after the
End Sentinel (ES).
--Lauren--