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	MAGNETIC STRIPE ENCODING SPECIFICATION Plastic cards which contain a magnetic stripe to be encoded must conform to American National Standards specification ANSI x 4.16 and International Standards Organization specification ISO 3554 and ISO 7812. The ISO tolerance of five percent, plus or minus, for deviation to the specification, shall apply. The standards for encoding the three tracks of the magnetic have established the basic encoding specifications for credit cards, debit card and identification cards - used for access control, factory data collection, patient identification and a variety of other systems. The Interbank and Visa specifications, as well as those of the ATM manufacturers, are based on these standards. Figure 1: Location of the Magnetic Stripe and Data Tracks ANSI x 4.161976 ISO 3554

TRACK ONE

The encoding specifications, information contents sequence for this track was developed by the International Air Transportation Association (IATA). Track 1 can contain up to 79 alphanumeric characters of information for the automation of airlines ticketing or other transactions where a data base is accessed. Track One is recorded at 210 bits per inch (BPI), is configured at 7 bits per character (including the Parity Bit), and contains 79 alphanumeric characters in the sequence as illustrated below.


	TRACK TWO The encoding specifications, information content and sequence for this track was developed by the American Bankers Association (ABA) and contains 40 numeric characters of information for the automation of financial transactions. Track Two is recorded at 75 bits per inch (BPI), is configured at 5 bits per character (including the Parity Bit), and contains 40 characters of numeric information as illustrated below.

TRACK THREE

The encoding specifications, information content and sequence for this track was developed by the Thrift Industry (THRIFT or MINTS) and contains 107 numeric characters of information for use in financial transactions. Some of the information is intended to be re-recorded or updated at the time of each transaction (at ATM's, for example). Track THREE is recorded at 210 bits per inch (BPI), is configured at 5 bits per character (including the Parity Bit), and contains 107 characters of numeric information as illustrated below.

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