AXA to launch guide to clear up confusion over fraud meaning

There is still a disconnect between what insurers define as fraud and what some brokers or the public think is fraudulent, AXA global fraud control officer Richard Davies has said.

This has led AXA to launch a guide called ‘making fraud clear’, to educate brokers and customers about what fraud is - particularly opportunistic fraud.

The guide will be launched on Monday.

Davies said: “It is not necessarily a disconnect that we can work on by simply just prosecuting people. We have to explain to people what fraud is.”

The guide, which will be one of three focused around fraud, will provide examples about different types of fraud.

The other two making fraud clear documents to be released in the coming months, will explain fraud-tackling terminology that insurers use, processes and collaborations with fraud-fighting organisations.

The guides form part of AXA’s wider ‘making claims clear’ transparency initiative.

Combating opportunistic fraud

Opportunistic fraud and exaggerated claims still make up the largest proportion of all fraudulent claims.

Davies said that the industry needed to focus on educating the public and brokers about fraud and its consequences, as well as prosecution, to fight fraud in the long term.

“It is something we need to address,” he added. “We cannot just keep fighting it in the courts we have to go about it by educating people.

“[Fraud] is confusing for the lay man. By bringing together a series of making fraud clear documents, we can add an extra dimension to the fraud fight by educating people on what it is and how we deal with it.”

Brokers

The guides will initially be distributed through brokers before being released directly to policyholders.

According to Davies, where policies are bought through brokers, they will see the information on the application first.

But he added that the level of understanding among brokers about what fraud was varied widely.

“Larger brokers have their own fraud teams and clearly have a pretty good understanding of what fraud is.

“For the smaller brokers, that may not be the case. They have not necessarily got the resources to develop the understanding or systems.

“There are a lot of statistics, media-type coverage and talk of prosecution of organised criminals, but there isn’t the education approach, which will make the bigger difference in the long term.”