What is Bank identification number?

Answer 1

The Bank Identification Number, also known as the BIN, or the Institutional Identification Number, also known as the IIN, can tell you the name of the bank that issued the card, the type of card like Debit or Credit or MasterCard or Visa. From the BIN you can also determine the bank phone number and other details about the card and issuer.

Bank Identification numbers are the first 6 digits of a card number.

The BIN numbers are maintained by the American Bankers Association, however, they do not distribute the database, or make the information public.

The ABA states, "The Register is not available to the general public. The Register is available only to those institutions that have issued cards in accordance with ISO/IEC 7812 Parts 1 and 2 and whose information appears in the Register; authorized block holders, Sponsoring Authorities and network providers."

The ABA goes on to say:

"The purpose of the ISO/IEC 7812 Numbering System is to uniquely identify an issuing institution in an international interchange environment. It is not possible to determine the country of origin from the IIN, nor is it possible to determine the type of card being used (i.e. debit, credit, ATM, etc.) Also, the "Register" does not contain information on the financial institutions who issue a card on behalf of Visa, MasterCard, Discover, etc, because that information is not reported to the ABA. That type of information would need to be obtained directly from those various organizations."

"Those various organizations," provide this information to private sources who maintain the actual data that is associated with the IIN or BIN. So for businesses to obtain the BIN database information they must purchase it from a private information provider, and not obtain it from the ABA.

Private information providers can supply information not maintained by the ABA.

The very first number determines the card type:

3 - American Express (Travel Industry)

4 - Visa Card

5 - MasterCard

6 - Discover and department store

If you look at a Visa card that starts with 4135 71 for example, this "BIN" number indicates it is a Visa issued card (because it starts with a "4") and looking up the number in a privately maintained BIN database, it lists the following information:

413571

Visa Debit

Business card

Bank of America Issue

888-287-4637

U.S.A. country of origin