ANSI ASC X12 is the official designation of the US National standards body for the development and maintenance of EDI standards for the United States. The group was founded in 1979, and is an accredited standards committee under the American National Standards Institute. The acronym stands for "American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards Committee X12," with the designation of X12 being a sequential designator assigned by ANSI at the time of accreditation with no other significance.