The first six digits, including the major industry identifier, compose the issuer identifier number (IIN) which identifies the issuing organization. The IINS was previously called the "bank identification number" (BIN) and some places still use that term.
Read more about this topic: ISO/IEC 7812
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“In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office. You may depend on it, that the poor fellow who walks away with the greatest number of letters, proud of his extensive correspondence, has not heard from himself this long while.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)