Forrest Parry invented the magnetic stripe used on many bank cards while working at IBM in the 1960s.
Parry developed a way to attach a strip of magnetic tape to a plastic identification card. Early attempts used heat, but the plastic warped. A widely repeated account says his wife suggested ironing the tape onto the card, producing a smoother and more practical result.
The stripe could store machine-readable information, allowing terminals and automated systems to identify cards more quickly than manual imprinting. Financial institutions later adopted the technology for credit, debit, and ATM cards.
Magnetic stripes are not the same as EMV chips. A stripe stores data magnetically, while an EMV chip performs transaction processing and can generate transaction-specific security information. Many countries have reduced reliance on stripes because chip and contactless payments offer stronger protection.