AS2805 Standards for EFT

Australia Standards 2805 (AS2805) is the standard for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Payments in Australia and New Zealand. AS2805 is also used for some implementations in South Africa and SE Asian.

AS2805 is owned by Australia Standards and was developed by various voluntary working groups within Committee IT/5. The implementation of AS2805 standards across all industries is clearly defined by the Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA) as part of the Consumer Electronic Clearing System (CECS) and detailed in the CECS Manual.

Contrary to popular belief AS2805 is not a rename of the ISO8583 standard in the Australia Standards numbering system, as is the case with most international standards.

ISO8583 was first published in 1987, while AS2805 was published two years earlier in 1985, after a lengthy period of draft and review in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. ISO8583 consists of three (3) parts:

  • Part 1: Messages, Data Elements and Code Values
  • Part 2: Application and Registration Procedures for Institution Identification Codes (IIC)
  • Part 3: Maintenance Procedures for Messages, Data Elements and Code Values

All three (3) parts of ISO8583 are concentrated on only message formats between devices (EFTPOS and ATM) and an acquiring host. ISO8583 can be seen as a small subset of the AS2805 standard and there is no clear guide for uniform implementation as is the case with CECS. AS2805 on the other hand consist of at least thirty three (33) separate published parts and covers general EFT topics such as:

  • Card Management & Authorisation
  • Card Detail Updating
  • PIN Management
  • Key Management and Security
  • Message Authentication
  • Privacy and Data Encryption
  • Communications
  • Message Structure between Devices and Acquiring Host
  • Message Structure between Hosts
  • File Transfers

The thirty three (33) AS2805 standards published so far are the following:

2805.1 Part 1: Communications
2805.2 Part 2: Message Structure, format and content
2805.3.1 Part 3.1: PIN Management and Security – General
2805.3.2 Part 3.2: PIN Management and Security – Offline
2805.4.1 Part 4.1: Message Authentication – Mechanisms Using a Block Cipher
2805.4.2 Part 4.2: Message Authentication – Mechanisms Using a Hash Function
2805.5.1 Part 5.1: Ciphers – Data Encipherment Algorithm 1 (DEA 1)
2805.5.2 Part 5.2: Ciphers – Modes of Operation for an n-bit block cipher algorithm
2805.5.3 Part 5.3: Ciphers – Data Encipherment Algorithm 2 (DEA 2)
2805.5.4 Part 5.4: Ciphers – Data Encipherment Algorithm 3 (DEA 3) & related techniques
2805.6.1.1 Part 6.1.1: Key Management – Principles
2805.6.1.2 Part 6.1.2: Key Management – Symmetric Ciphers, their Key Management & Life Cycle
2805.6.1.4 Part 6.1.4: Key Management – Asymmetric Cryptosystems – Key Management & Life Cycle
2805.6.2 Part 6.2: Key Management – Transaction keys
2805.6.3 Part 6.3: Key Management – Session Keys – Node to Node
2805.6.4 Part 6.4: Key Management – Session Keys – Terminal to Acquirer
2805.6.5.1 Part 6.5.1: Key Management – TCU Initialisation – Principles
2805.6.5.2 Part 6.5.2: Key Management – TCU Initialisation – Symmetric
2805.6.5.3 Part 6.5.3: Key Management – TCU Initialisation – Asymmetric
2805.6.6 Part 6.6: Key Management – Session Keys – Node to Node with KEK Replacement
2805.9 Part 9: Privacy of Communications
2805.10.1 Part 10.1: File Transfer Integrity Validation
2805.10.2 Part 10.2: Secure File Transfer (Retail)
2805.11 Part 11: Card Parameter Table
2805.12.1 Part 12.1: Message Content – Structure and Format
2805.12.2 Part 12.2: Message Content – Codes
2805.12.3 Part 12.3: Message Content – Maintenance of Codes
2805.13.1 Part 13.1: Secure Hash Functions – General
2805.13.2 Part 13.2: Secure Hash Functions – MD5
2805.13.3 Part 13.3: Secure Hash Functions – SHA-1
2805.14.1 Part 14.1: Secure Cryptographic Devices (Retail) – Concepts, Requirements and Evaluation Methods
2805.14.2 Part 14.2: Secure Cryptographic Devices (Retail) – Security Compliance Checklist for Devices used in Financial Transactions
2805.16 Part 16: Merchant Category Codes

The AS2805 standard also provides three (3) published Handbooks related to the AS2805 standard:

HB 127 EFT – Implementing Message Content Standards – Conversion Handbook
HB 128 EFT – Implementing Message Content Standards – Terminal Handbook
HB 129 EFT – Implementing Message Content Standards – Interchange Handbook

There are a number of guideline white papers available to assist the implementation of EFT related functionality such as:

  • Card Management & Production
  • EFTPOS/POS Software Management
  • EFTPOS and POS Product Management
  • Software and Configuration File Downloading
  • Retail Electronic Data Exchange (EDT) that covers price downloads, ordering and statistics
  • Retail Automation
  • Terminal Management
  • Merchant Management
  • Cashier Management
  • Fraud Monitoring and Management