1. A smart card for recording data relating to a card user and a plurality of card issuers and, associated with each issuer, the following fields: an application code field indicating a type of application made available to the user by the issuer; a PIN field identifying the user; an access code field wherein the card issuer can have access to the fields associated with that issuer but not to fields associated with any other issuer; an account number field; an expiration date field; and a miscellaneous data field provided for the issuer to record additional data to facilitate its operations with respect to the user; wherein the fields associated with each issuer are separate from the fields associated with every other issuer.