Operation block is a core capability of Pismo platform's transaction banking operation that allows financial institutions to temporarily restrict account activity at the program, division, or organization level.

Unlike the restrict funds feature, which targets specific amounts, operation block applies to all operations for entire account groups, while still permitting certain authorized activities—such as earmarks or check processing. This ensures that essential internal processes can continue even when most activities are frozen.

The feature is designed for rapid response, enabling institutions to halt all operations with a single request. It can be applied in targeted situations—such as suspending activity in specific regions—or in broader cases, such as locking down operations during a cyberattack.

Feature highlights

Operation block includes the following features.

• Block transactions based on division, program, or organization-level definitions.
• Allow specific operations by using the allow operation field.
• Provide a comprehensive suite of APIs to create, update, list, and revoke blocks.
• Integrate seamlessly with other features, such as restrict funds.

Endpoints

The operation block endpoints allow clients to create, view, modify, and remove operation blocks.

Allowed operations

You can configure operations to be exempt from the blocking rule by specifying them in the allowed_operations field of Create operation block. When explicitly enabled, these operations bypass block enforcement, allowing for more granular control over transaction behavior during the blocking period. This table lists the available operations and their respective behaviors.

The available operations are listed in the description of the allowed_operations field of the Create operation block endpoint. For example, If you set allowed_operations to EARMARK_CANCEL, EARMARK_RELEASE, or EARMARK_UPDATE, then all earmark operations are allowed, while all other operations are blocked.