ISO/IEC 7816-9:2004 specifies interindustry commands for integrated circuit cards (both with contacts and without contacts) for card and file management, e.g. file creation and deletion. These commands cover the entire life cycle of the card and therefore some commands may be used before the card has been issued to the cardholder or after the card has expired.

An annex is provided that shows how to control the loading of data (secure download) into the card, by means of verifying the access rights of the loading entity and protection of the transmitted data with secure messaging. The loaded data may contain, for example, code, keys and applets.