Why is Ermi cheap?

One of the questions we get asked the most is: "Why is this so cheap?"

It’s definitely the most popular questions and in the cases where we don't get asked, it’s because people have assumed we were suspiciously cheap and just gone elsewhere.

Years of vendor requests for quotes have trained the compliance community that customers will pay a hefty setup fee, a support fee and then a per-transaction fee to use tools like Ermi.

Setup fees for a complex programme can run to £100,00, support fees at £2,000 a month and then a per transaction fee of 1-3p per transaction. It’s often £150,000 of commitment before you take into account your own in-house development time, which is needed to connect to their system, deal with the response calls from APIs, query their system again for an update

These integrations can easily take a year and cost hundreds of thousands.

But you're required to have these tools in place before you can begin activity or get a license!

So, why is Ermi different?

We aren't always running

An API requires a system to be always on, 24/7, waiting for you to tell it a transaction has happened. This sort of uptime costs a lot in terms of infrastructure, support and a well-built robust tool. It also needs to handle failed calls, clear backlogs when the internet chokes and fails to deliver a call. All of this is not cheap. Honestly, props to people who maintain real-time APIs.

Once that data arrives, it has to be stored for as long as analysis is needed. More complexity occurs if you want to later show a transaction was cancelled, failed etc.

Ermi doesn't do any of that. We need a large volume of information for retrospective review, so we just do a large bulk transfer of data in one go, by receiving a CSV. A bit like the Batch uploads used by Barclays (File Transfer) or Citi (Bulk Upload) which are sent at timed intervals. it just makes more sense to transfer data in a bulk file.

There are downsides to this of course, we cannot monitor in real time. But for those firms with smaller volumes or more manual processes, this isn't required.

This also has a side benefit of allowing Ermi to operate as a backup if your primary system goes down. Just upload all your data at the end of the day and Ermi is as up-to-date as your normal system and can do the analysis!

We don't have a big database

Most tools in this space take your data and put it into a big database. Databases have scale issues, the more and more data you add, the slower they get. You add more power and cores and therefore, cost, to query them. Complex queries are then written in SQL, which makes queries such as Averages a nightmare in terms of processing power. This is particularly awkward because that is exactly what most AML rules are designed to look for.

Databases also need to be stored, be externally addressable, ultra secured, backed up and editable. If you want to cancel a transaction, or change the sum delivered, it has to be overwritten. If you ever want to add another piece of data to a database for one client, it applies to every client and slows things down further.

And lets not get into race conditions. How do you know a client's Average Transaction Value when they trade every second and the systems are still trying to work it out from last time?!?!

A big spreadsheet does not have this issue. Hundreds of thousands of transactions are a few MegaBytes. If you want to say a transaction was canceled, just remove it from the spreadsheet when you send the file again. You can’t update the data in flight, so race conditions don't occur and after the analysis is done, we can delete the data you sent us which means it is safe, secure and isn't costing us a fortune to store.

We can also add new columns and data for one client, without making database changes to everyone. This means if you have some super cool data you want to use, just tell us. We’d love to include it, just for you.

Security

Your customer data needs to be kept ultra secure, particularly transactional data which may include bank details.

Setting up your own security for databases and ensuring you don't have any minor holes or flaws in your databases that allow things like SQL injections or other attacks is complex and costly.

Ermi’s file transfer is handled using the existing security protocols created by some of the world’s largest tech companies (Amazon, Microsoft and Google) and uses the existing security credentials you have in place with those firms. You share these files with us inside those systems using established protocols.

We also don't have a big shiny interface or website that can be hacked and needs to be designed and made accessible and secure. Even our actual website isn't that technical!

By reducing the inputs and not operating a website or case management tool, we have reduced the security risks and therefore the cost.

We only offer the bit you are required to have

Regulations on transaction monitoring do not require that you have an API, or a case management tool, or that your vendor has a portal. They require that you conduct analysis on your transactions to flag outliers and then analyse those alerts.

These case management portals are often more complex than the analytics tools, as user interfaces are complex. There are more lines of code in our competitors’ websites than there are in our core engine.

Ermi only provides the analytics engine, AKA the bit you need. You can use your own internal case management tools which are often already in your CRM to handle alerts and avoid paying for this feature twice.

We just actually want to help fight crime

The problem with expensive tools is that they are not affordable by smaller firms or startups. So, these smaller firms might choose not to use a Transaction Monitoring tool and rely instead upon manual processes which carry their own risks.

We believe that offering an effective and affordable tool encourages firms to monitor their transactions properly to better detect and report crimes, which is better for society and legitimate firms.