INTERVIEW
Collaboration is what’s needed to make our industry an inhospitable environment for fraudsters
Q
How has your experience at Gocompare.com shaped your outlook on fraud in the insurance industry and influenced the development of NOW?
A
My role at Gocompare.com helped open my eyes to not just the role of an aggregator in counter-fraud, but the responsibility all companies have to support one another. Having worked for an aggregator, insurer and broker during my career, I have seen first-hand the challenges they all face. Unfortunately, when it comes to counter-fraud, aggregators often face criticism from the industry, rather than support. I believe that for our industry to come together and address this problem in unity, aggregators, brokers and insurers must all be educated about each other’s strengths and weaknesses. NOW has been developed to provide a secure platform for open discussions and industry education in the form of articles, blogs, videos and reports, all of which are completely free for insurers, brokers and aggregators to contribute and read. I hope that all three take advantage of this and start communicating to address this huge problem together.
Q
What do you identify as the biggest barriers to combating fraud in the insurance industry?
A
Closed minds. Fraudsters evolve, quickly and effectively. They use and embrace any new opportunity to achieve their goal. A large number of professionals in our industry support and welcome innovation and change, but unfortunately there is also still a large amount who don’t. Not everything shiny and new is effective or successful, nor is everything which is established and longstanding, but it should all be reviewed and considered with an open mind.
Q
Why might the silo approach to fraud undertaken by many insurance businesses not be sufficient to overcome the fraud challenge, and how does the culture of the industry need to change to increase progress?
A
Organised fraud rings are just that; they’re a ring of multiple people working towards a common goal. They share tactics, successes and work together to overcome challenges. If there’s a problem they can’t resolve within their immediate group, they simply find someone who can. Insurance is a business, and as with any business the goal is profit. Of course, businesses are going to focus internally on reducing an issue like fraud, which impacts this. However, this industry will remain a target for fraudsters as long as we fail to effectively communicate and present a united front and use not only our internal knowledge and skills, but all the knowledge and skills our industry has to offer.
Issue 31
Q A
How can data sharing and transparency aid in the fight against fraud?
Data sharing is absolutely key to both detecting and preventing fraud. It’s vital that our industry has access and contributes to industry data sharing initiatives. Not only does the act of sharing data help identify fraud, but it’s also our greatest deterrent, sending a message that failure to defraud one of us will result in failure to defraud any of us. NOW is not a personal data sharing platform. We encourage simple communication about modus operandi, best practice, challenges and successes. We hope to create the network and trust needed to encourage this crucial data sharing through the appropriate channels.
Q
Where are there current or historical examples of successful industry collaboration, and are there lessons that can be taken from these and applied to the fraud challenge?
A
There are many examples of successful collaboration within the industry, between insurers, service providers, brokers and the police. This just goes to show that working together and expanding your goals outside of our internal company targets works, and that there is a willingness in our industry to collaborate.
Q
What is the role of comparison websites in combatting fraud, and is there scope for them to be more deeply involved in this?
A
Aggregators have a view of the customer and their behaviours at the point of application, which is simply not available anywhere else in the industry. Aggregators have a very important role to play in sharing this unique view with not only their insurers and brokers but also the wider industry. Although, this is easier said than done… The challenge aggregators face is how? With large amounts of insurers, brokers and industry bodies to share with, each of which having different fraud solutions, quoting and analytic software, finding an appropriate one size fits all solution is timely, resource heavy and expensive. This doesn’t take away from the fact that aggregators have a clear responsibility, but it does call for the industry to work closer with them to understand their challenges and help devise a realistic solution.
Just by speaking to family and friends it’s easy to identify that there is a disjoint in what we consider fraud and what the public considers fraud Modern Insurance 11