The Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) and SAS have enhanced their partnership to combat insurance fraud by expanding their combined technology platform, which hosts confirmed fraud and suspected fraud data.
IFB’s Insurance Fraud Register (IFR) is now available on the same platform as the Insurance Fraud Intelligence Hub (IFiHub). According to IFB, this enables it to provide more efficient fraud investigation and prevention services to the UK insurance industry. The new IFR platform is powered by technology from SAS, which provides members of both IFR and IFiHub with a more unified fraud investigation process.
According to IFB, the launch of the new platform is a significant development in the quest to continually evolve and enhance services in order to keep pace with fraudsters and find ways to improve the quality and timeliness of data.
IFiHub, which was launched in 2019, is an industry-scale intelligence database that helps detect suspected fraud rapidly. It allows users to share, analyse, monitor and investigate suspect intelligence data in real time.
A total of 107,000 fraud incidents are reported each year, worth around £1.2 billion, according to the Association of British Insurers. Many cases go unreported, which means the true scale of the crime is much larger. Insurers have predicted that the financial crisis caused by the pandemic will cause insurance scams to be more common, with fraudsters looking to take advantage of new technology and more people using online services.
“Insurance fraud affects thousands every year, causing considerable personal and economic loss, so it’s vital that the industry continues to work together to combat this issue,” said Ben Fletcher, director at IFB. “It’s in everyone’s interest that fraud is effectively tackled and reduced in scale, so less money is lost to the economy and insurance premiums can be lowered for all. We decided to deepen our partnership with SAS to build the new platform as they provide innovative solutions and understand the need to drive forward a better customer experience. We’re really pleased to be launching the new platform, as it’s a crucial step in evolving how we share intelligence with the industry, allowing customers to keep pace with the fraudster but also deal with genuine cases more quickly.”
“Being agile and able to evolve quickly is a major advantage that fraudsters have held over the insurance industry for years,” said Roderick Crawford, vice president and country manager, SAS UK and Ireland. “However, this new platform enables insurers to instantly match suspected fraud with similar instances of confirmed fraud, allowing for much faster and more accurate decision-making. The fight against sophisticated fraudsters will continue, and use of best-in-class technology is key to winning the battle.”
