Insurance Fraud Register must woo sceptics

Today the ABI has launched the Insurance Fraud Register (IFR), in an attempt to curb the levels of fraud that have been plaguing insurers’ balance sheets and increasing customers’ premiums.

The IFR will be run by the Insurance Fraud Bureau, and will record fraudsters’ details from the insurers that sign up to it. The information will be passed to the National Fraud Authority and can be used by other insurers when handling quotes and claims. The aim is to track fraudsters and prevent them from scamming one insurer then moving on to the rest.

The register should help reduce insurance fraud, and the need for an industry-wide database was apparent from the unofficial registers insurers ran on a smaller scale.

However, the IFR has a lot to prove. Research published by Insurance Times earlier this year showed that 68% of 139 insurance industry respondents thought the IFR and the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) initiatives would not be enough to significantly reduce insurance scams. Only 6% of respondents thought the two schemes would be sufficient.

To be fair to the IFED, since the research was published, the police unit has made several high-profile arrests and gathered evidence for prosecutions. But the fight against fraud is not the remit of only the IFED and the IFR. Insurers and brokers have been steadily investing in fraud detection systems, and will also start a fresh crackdown on motor fraud when they eventually get access to the DVLA database. The industry has also been trying to make insurance fraud seem like a less socially acceptable crime.

Hopefully, the combined initiatives will be enough to start making a dent in an area of crime that has been growing for far too long.