ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 Cards and personal identification is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which develops and facilitates standards within the field of identification cards and personal identification. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 is the British Standards Institution (BSI) located in the United Kingdom. History. In 1969, at the request of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), ISO/TC 95, Office Machines, set up a working group  to consider whether there was a requirement for International Standardization in the area of credit cards. Several meetings were held in 1969 and early 1970 to consider the development of a credit card standard and the requirement for a numbing system. The standard was to be based on the existing ANSI X4A11 standard. In July 1970 the working group recommended that ISO/TC 95 form a permanent subcommittee to be known as ISO/TC 95/SC 17. The subcommittee met for the first time in May 1971 in Geneva, Switzerland. At this meeting agreement was reached on the first draft  ISO standard for Embossed ‘Credit Cards’ and a procedure for the registration of Numeric Identifiers for Credit Card Issuers. An offer was made by the American Bankers Association to administer the issuance of these identifiers, a role they fulfill to this day; over 40 years of service. In 1979, the subcommittee became part of ISO/TC 97, Information Technology. Finally, in 1988 the subcommittee became part of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) as ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 with the title, “Identification cards and credit cards.” Its first plenary as such was held in Toronto , Canada. In 1999 the title of the subcommittee was changed to its current title, “Cards and personal identification.” Since then, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 has had a number of plenaries held in various countries, including: Japan, Canada, Denmark, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, France, Germany, United Kingdom, China, and Spain. Scope. The scope of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 is “standardization in the area of: Structure. ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 is made up of eight active Working Groups (WGs), each of which carries out specific tasks in standards development within the field of cards and personal  identification. Working groups can be created or disbanded in response to changing standardization needs. The focus of each Working Group is described in the group’s terms of reference. Active Working Groups of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 are: Collaborations. ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 works in close collaboration with a number of other organizations or subcommittees, both internal and external to ISO or IEC, in order to avoid conflicting or duplicative work. Organizations internal to ISO or IEC that collaborate with or are in liaison to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 include: Some organizations external to  ISO or IEC that collaborate with or are in liaison to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 include: Member countries. Countries pay a fee to ISO to be members of subcommittees. The 34 "P" (participating) members of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 are: Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States of America. The 18 "O" (observer) members of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17  are: Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Ghana, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, New Zealand, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Viet Nam. Standardization activity. ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 currently has 123 published standards within the field of cards and personal identification, some of which are freely available. The types of standards developed by the subcommittee, by working group, include: For a complete set of standards published by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 and detailed descriptions, see the document “Summary of Standards.”