The insurance industry finally seems to have got its message across, says a hopeful Andy Cook
As predicted last week, the national media took hold of the "HBOS to adopt lie detector" story and decided that it was an affront to the millions of honest policyholders in the UK. Interestingly, the outrage was not quite as vehement as one might expect.
Perhaps the insurance industry has got its message across. Fraud is an issue that costs each one of us and the more that we can do to stamp it out, the better it is for our premiums in future years. The leader writers in the nationals certainly understood and used this line of argument.
And, although they weren't overwhelmed by its force, it was refreshing to see the issue being talked about with greater understanding.
The reaction of loss adjusters has been interesting too. This week saw Crawford announce its Tracemaster deal. This is another counter-fraud measure that will see individuals being tracked more closely. And it sees Crawford beginning to take steps towards innovation-leadership in the loss adjusting market that its recent moves in the recruitment market have been promising.
It seems that fraud and the way our industry tackles it is set to be one of the hot topics of future months. Let's hope that the refreshing action being taken at the moment is augmented rather than diluted by the think-tanks set up by the ABI.
