Why Did EMS Choose LegitScript Merchant Monitoring?
Electronic Merchant Systems (EMS) was looking for a vendor to help monitor merchant accounts in high-risk verticals with a more robust, proactive approach. Dan Stanbridge, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, shares insights into why EMS chose LegitScript and how the relationship has increased his team’s efficiency, helping them enhance the merchant experience.
About Electronic Merchant Systems (EMS)
Electronic Merchant Systems (EMS) is a leading provider of payment processing and merchant services with more than 30 years of experience helping small to midsize businesses grow. EMS supports a wide range of industries — including those operating in high-risk categories — by offering secure, innovative, and flexible payment solutions.
"[LegitScript] is collaborative and responsive. … They’re not just a vendor — they’ve been a true partner in helping us manage risk."
Dan Stanbridge, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at EMS
Q&A With Dan Stanbridge
In the following Q&A, Dan explains why EMS selected LegitScript as its merchant monitoring provider, and how LegitScript’s domain expertise and consultative support has helped his team.
What was the main problem you were trying to solve when you looked for a merchant monitoring solution?
We support high-risk verticals, and that means the risk profile of our merchants can change quickly. Many solutions just take a snapshot at onboarding, but a merchant’s website can change without us realizing it. We needed ongoing monitoring to help us stay ahead of that.
What stood out about LegitScript’s platform and capabilities?
It’s robust — from the alerting to the structure of the reports, everything is intuitive. Our team can quickly understand what an alert is about and what action is needed. LegitScript also has a lot of credibility in the space, and they understand the nuance in what might or might not be compliant — especially in categories like supplements and CBD. That subject matter expertise is incredibly valuable to us.
How does LegitScript help you make decisions more efficiently?
Processes that previously took days or even weeks are now down to minutes, and that’s largely due to the information we’re getting from LegitScript. Fundamentally, data is the most important thing in risk. The more data we have, the better decisions we can make. The analysis we get from LegitScript is a valuable input that we can combine with processing history and other data to make more informed decisions.
How does LegitScript support EMS’ growth strategy?
LegitScript plays a key role in helping us grow responsibly. We established a LegitScript Certification partnership to help us onboard and support healthcare merchants more easily and make sure those merchants are operating in compliance. LegitScript Merchant Monitoring gives us consistent insight into what merchants are doing after onboarding, which is critical as we grow our portfolio. And LegitScript has added some really useful speed-focused capabilities — things like MCC Detection that leverage AI to help us evaluate merchant category codes more quickly. It’s been great to have a partner that’s evolving right alongside us as our needs grow.
What has your experience been like working with the LegitScript team?
It’s been excellent. They’re collaborative and responsive, and we’ve had really good conversations about thresholds and how we fine-tune alerts. They’re not just a vendor — they’ve been a true partner in helping us manage risk. It may sound cliché, but I mean it when I say that the people at LegitScript make a tremendous difference. Many vendors are losing the personal touch as they drive toward more automation, but LegitScript has kept that — and we really appreciate it.
Would you recommend LegitScript to other organizations?
Absolutely. If you’re in any part of the payments space where risk is a concern — and that’s pretty much everyone — you need a monitoring partner you can trust. LegitScript has been that for us.