SAN FRANCISCO – Visa USA, the nation's No. 1 card brand, has released a service which it claims will enable card issuers to respond to fraud attempts in real time, as a card transaction is being processed. Advanced Authorization, the new technology, will give all Visa cardholders, merchants and financial institutions powerful, new fraud protection, and prevent an estimated $164 million in fraud losses over the next five years, Visa said. When a Visa card is swiped, Advanced Authorization provides an instantaneous rating of that transaction's potential for fraud to the financial institution that issued the card, including whether it was part of a reported data security compromise. A credit union is then able to send an immediate response back to the merchant whether to accept or decline the transaction, based in part on the evaluation provided by the program. This new technology is being applied to every Visa credit and check card purchase today. Issuing financial institutions determine how to incorporate the expanded fraud information into their existing risk systems, Visa reported. "Fighting fraud and protecting cardholders has always been a high priority for Visa," said Jean Bruesewitz, senior vice president, for Visa USA. "Visa is continually investing in the most sophisticated fraud-fighting systems to stay one step ahead of the criminals. Advanced Authorization adds another layer of security and ensures ever increased cardholder confidence with each Visa payment card purchase." During the pilot phase, VISA subjected the fraud detector to rigorous evaluation by a number of U.S. card issuers.