The app will allow members to turn their credit and debit cards on and off. Cards turned on will be able to make transactions while cards turned off will not, Ahlawat said.

Members will also be able to set up their cards, or cards they control used by others, to limit spending at different types of retailers, or different locations, and even by whether the card is within a certain amount of distance from the app's phone.

In other words, the member can set up their cards so they only work when the phone is in their pocket or purse, Ahlawat said. The app doesn't even need to be open in order to work, she said.

In addition, when the card is used, receipts demonstrating the transactions are sent to the app often before they can be printed on paper, Ahlawat said.

Members will also be able to set limit their transactions by both geography and purchase category, Ahlawat explained so, for example, a member with a child in college in the San Francisco Bay area could limit a debit card's use to that region and limit its purchases at clothing retailers to less than $50 but allow the child to spend up to $500 at the university's book shop.

"This puts the member, the card holder, in control of their payment cards in a way that nothing else does," Ahlawat said. "It solves the challenges of security and provides cardholders with control that actually leads to consumers using their cards more often, not less."

The card app will also allow members to control how their cards are used online as well, giving it an additional level of security for card-not-present transactions, which are considered a weakness for cards which carry the EMV chip. Chip-enabled cards are very good at blocking fraud from counterfeit cards, but have not performed as well in preventing card not present fraud on the internet, Ahlawat said.

No executive from CO-OP commented on the new app other than to confirm that the partnership existed and that the app was currently being tested for roll out later in 2014.