Specialist insurer Ecclesiastical partners with the Insurance Fraud Bureau to help combat property and casualty fraud
02 December 2020
Specialist insurer Ecclesiastical has today joined the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) to support the industry’s collective fight against property and casualty insurance scams.
Ecclesiastical offers specialist insurance services for customers in the faith, heritage, charity, education, high net worth and real-estate markets – with particular expertise in valuing and protecting properties.
By having access to the IFB’s intelligence and investigations tools, combined with Ecclesiastical’s expertise, the new partnership is set to enhance industry efforts against property and casualty insurance scams – which appear to be on the rise.
Richard Coleman, Managing Director at Ecclesiastical, said:
“I’m really pleased to join the IFB and our colleagues from across the insurance industry to fight insurance fraud which costs companies, and ultimately customers, billions of pounds each year.”
“Not only do insurance scams have serious consequences for victims they also increase premiums for legitimate customers, making insurance more expensive for everyone. We are committed to investing in fraud deterrents to help protect our customers and ensure that false claims are dealt with in the strongest possible means.”
Stephen Dalton, Head of Intelligence and Investigations at the IFB, said:
“The nature and impact of insurance scams are far-reaching and constantly evolve. By partnering with Ecclesiastical we’ll be able to share best-practice and key intelligence to better enhance the industry’s fight against property and casualty insurance scams. We’re thrilled to have Ecclesiastical join us and hope to see even more specialist sectors of the market follow suit.”
Ecclesiastical joins a host of over 60 big-name insurance service providers to join the IFB with recent additions including Go Compare and Crawford & Company.
The IFB which is a not-for-profit organisation that was originally set up in 2006 to investigate organised motor insurance fraud, has seen its investigations expand over time to cover all product lines including property and casualty fraud.
Currently at least one insurance scam takes place every minute in the UK, leaving victims devastated and costing honest consumers more than £3 billion each year.
Recent figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) show detected fraudulent property insurance claims rose 30% in 2019. There are also concerns the current economic climate could see insurance scams rise further.
More information on joining the IFB’s membership to help tackle organised insurance fraud can be found on its website.