Insurance Companies: Are You Equipped to Successfully Combat Fraud?

Over the summer of 2014, SAS undertook a Europe-wide online survey inviting insurers to participate in order to discover their maturity level in fighting fraud.

The survey findings reveal significantly higher levels of fraud detection amongst insurers making use of the latest business and advanced analytics solutions, with results showing that among insurers using analytics, 57 per cent had seen the amount of fraud they detected year-on-year increase by more than 4 per cent. In contrast, only 16 per cent of those with no solution, or using only a business rules based approach, saw a similar increase.

Other findings include:

• A high percentage of respondents (79%) are actively detecting claims fraud, and 39 per cent are detecting fraud at the new business/underwriting stage;
• Less than 1 in 10 (8 per cent) had improved their fraud detecting rate year-on-year by more than 10 per cent;
• 81 per cent of insurers were using some form of automated detection technologies, with 49 per cent using business analytics;

The survey paints a picture of an industry that is increasingly aware of the rapid growth in fraud and that is waking up to the need to tackle the problem by investing in dedicated teams and appropriate technologies.