IFB's five-year fraud strategy 'on track'

The development of the Insurance Fraud Bureau’s (IFB) five-year strategy for 2015-2019 is ‘on track,’ according to the Bureau’s Strategy Project Board Chair, Mihir Pandya.

Pandya who is also fraud manager at Allianz said significant steps had been taken since the future IFB strategy was launched in January to move the bureau into a “new era” of fraud detection.

The five-year strategy has two primary objectives: to manage fraud across all product types and build an intelligence-sharing infrastructure for the industry.

The project has three parts; a project board with overall responsibility for the governance and delivery of the strategic work programme, and two project groups - one focusing on the IFB’s expansion cover all products, the other focusing on creating the infrastructure needed to share intelligence compliantly and efficiently.

Zurich claims fraud and investigations and chair of the IFB’s products workstream Scott Clayton said that testing had already begun on the feasibility of identifying organised fraud networks within the Claims Underwriting Exchange (CUE) data.

“Results of the Proof of Concept will, for the first time, provide the industry with insight as to what ‘organised fraud’ looks like in other product lines,” Clayton said.

“We know that the fraudsters targeting our motor books are not product loyal, so it’s absolutely essential we tighten our controls across other key product lines to ensure the fraud threat isn’t simply displaced.”

Meanwhile within the intelligence sharing team the board has sought legal advice around fraud intelligence sharing.

A privacy impact assessment has also been completed working alongside Deloitte to further assess the legal considerations of installing cross-industry intelligence sharing infrastructure.

RSA UK counter fraud manager and IFB Intelligence workstream chair John Beadle said: “By developing the infrastructure and governance to enable the industry to share intelligence in a consistent and compliant manner, the IFB will have a unique view of the common trends and future threats affecting insurers, brokers and suppliers.”

One of the primary objectives of the project board is to scope potential return on investment (ROI) in evolving the IFB, and expected time-scales for delivery

On 26 November 2015, the IFB will present a business case to the General Insurance Council, which will identify the potential return on investment in evolving the IFB and the time-scales and cost of delivery.