Strip of magnetic tape, affixed to bank credit and debit cards, encoded with cardholder identifying information, such as the Primary Account Number and card expiration date, permitting automated handling of transactions. The bank card industry standard for magnetic stripes allows three separate tracks of encoded data:
Track 1: developed by the International Air Transportation Association for automation of airline ticketing;
Track 2: developed by the American Bankers Association for the automation of financial transactions; and
Track 3: developed by the thrift industry for financial terminals operating in an Off-Line mode (not connected to a host processor) for transaction authorization.
