The American National Standards Institute International Organization for Standardization created the BIN system for credit cards and other payment cards.
The first digit in a BIN is called the major industry identifier (MII). Cards that belong to the Visa payment network often start with a 4, for instance, and cards that belong to the Mastercard payment network usually start with a 2 or 5. The number 2 is assigned to the airline and financial sectors, and the numbers 4 and 5 are assigned to the banking and financial sectors.
The remaining BIN digits identify a card’s issuer. All 14, 15, 16 or 19 digits in a card number make up the primary account number (PAN). The PAN identifies the card issuer and the account that supports the card.
In 2022, Visa and Mastercard began rolling out eight-digit BINs to address the shortage of BINs caused by the global growth of payment cards. Traditional six-digit BINs still exist, but the payment networks no longer issue them.
Keep in mind that your credit card account number is part of the PAN but does not represent the entire PAN. The PAN is longer than the credit card account number.
