Insurance Times Fraud Charter

Insurance Times launched the Fraud Charter 2012 initiative, sponsored by AXA Personal Lines, this month to boost the industry’s response to an epidemic that threatens to undermine the very sustainability of our industry.

While the insurance industry has made a lot of progress in combating fraud, statistics show that it has not gone far enough.

Detected fraud was up 9% in 2010, compared to the previous year, according to most recent ABI statistics. More recent figures from Experian showed a 43% rise in fraudulent applications and claims between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011.

And as the recession bites and the detection of well known scams, like ‘cash for crash’ improves, ever ingenious fraudsters are moving into new areas. Recently, the ABI reported that detected pet fraud was up from £420,000 in 2009 to £1.92m last year, a nearly fivefold increase.

Insurance Times is assembling a pan-industry advisory board which will include representatives from all wings of insurance, ranging from brokers and insurers to loss adjusters and lawyers.

The aim of the charter, the production of which will be overseen by the advisory board, is fourfold:

*develop the next steps that the government should take in the fight against insurance fraud

* outline what the industry can do to boost its own efforts to tackle fraud

* find ways for the industry to work together more effectively to address the issue

* share the good work the industry is already doing to tackle fraud

The advisory board will meet on a quarterly basis in London throughout 2012 and the first meeting took place on January the 18th. The second meeting of the Advisory Board will take place on the 21st of March.

The end product of the project will be a final ‘charter’, which will be presented to the government in November 2012.

To underpin the charter’s evolution, the Insurance Times Fraud Charter home page will feature regularly updated case studies, news, analysis on insurance fraud throughout 2012. To kick off the initiative, we are holding an online poll to establish the extent of the problem and probe the industry’s views on the effectiveness of measures to tackle it.

CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE OUR FRAUD CHARTER SURVEY

Working together on insurance fraud: Expert View