A new Visa service will enable consumers to temporarily stop approval of a suspect transaction via their smartphones, as well as offer other measures designed to give greater control over anti-fraud measures.

Visa is making the new capabilities available to card issuing financial institutions which can in turn offer them to end-users via their banking apps, mobile wallets and websites.

The credit cards firm is making APIs available so issuers can integrate the new controls into their banking apps.

Among the features available to issuers include the option to turn card authorisation on or off to temporarily block a transaction if they think a card has been lost or stolen.

In addition, users can block or request alerts about selected activity, for instance purchases online or in store, as well as ATM usage.

Account holders can also limit transaction size by setting spending limits over a period of time, or receive alerts based on size of transaction.

Finally, families or businesses can define individual controls for primary cards as well as companion cards used by family members. For instance, a parent can share a Visa account with a child who gets a companion card with limits and alerts that are sent to their parent’s mobile phone.

The new initiative is called Visa Consumer Transaction Controls and applies to credit, debit and pre-paid cards.