GIFC Announce 2022 Counter-fraud strategy

As insurance services become increasingly digitised and fast-paced, so too are the tactics of fraudsters meaning now more than ever organisations need to work together to fight fraud. This is the message that the General Insurance Fraud Committee (GIFC) is delivering to the insurance industry as it publishes its 2022 business plan setting out priorities for the year ahead.

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) around 100,000 fraudulent claims worth over £1.2bn are made each year. The GIFC is the UK’s largest group of insurers working together to tackle insurance fraud, an approach which sees intelligence and best practice shared across organisations in order to solve complex fraud challenges.

Key achievements for GIFC in 2021 included:

• Producing GIFC’s Claims Data Theft Guide, which provides comprehensive, practical advice to help insurers protect their organisation and assist with securing successful prosecutions
• Supporting IFED’s new ‘cease and desist model’ to disrupt lower-level offences, specifically when it comes to tackling ghost broking
• Overseeing the move to provide Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) members with access to suspected and confirmed fraud data in one place through combining the IFR and IFiHub platforms, allowing for faster and more accurate decision making when it comes to detecting fraud

Chair of the GIFC, Clare Lunn, commented: “In what has been a challenging year for the counter-fraud community in General Insurance, we have seen fraudsters continue to adapt whether in relation to small-scale opportunistic fraud or sophisticated threats linked to organised networks.

“Using our collective strength as the GIFC we continue to bring people together to shape the counter-fraud strategy and respond to emerging fraud threats. We have identified a number of priorities for 2022 that have the interests of the industry and society at heart as we continue to evolve how we tackle fraud.”

GIFC are committed to delivering the following in 2022: 

• Helping the industry tackle the ongoing issue of data theft, including helping establish a multi-agency approach to the issue and improving the framework for sharing intelligence and trends
• Supporting the IFB and wider industry to launch an AI-driven counter insurance fraud platform for the UK market in early 2022 and ensuring the solution meets customers’ needs
• Working with the industry and the Ministry of Justice following the recently introduced Whiplash Reforms to ensure that data sharing evolves to protect against future frauds
• Continuing to influence legislation with a particular focus on the Economic Crime Plan including developing an insurance sector fraud charter with the government
• Working with the market to ensure that those writing commercial insurance have the right counter fraud capability and tools at an industry level

The GIFC 2022 Business Plan can be read in full here.