SAS and IFB team up to fight insurance fraud with expanded intelligence sharing platform

The Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) and SAS continue to evolve the data sharing capability for the insurance industry through a combined technology platform, which hosts confirmed fraud and suspected fraud data.

The Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) can now deliver its Insurance Fraud Register (IFR) service on the same platform as the Insurance Fraud Intelligence (IFi) Hub, enabling the IFB to enhance the efficiency of the fraud investigation and prevention services provided to the UK insurance industry. The new IFR platform is powered by SAS technology, enhancing the service to IFR members and providing members of both IFR and IFiHub with a single solution to support their fraud investigation processes.

Insurance fraud is a major social and economic menace in the UK. According to the latest figures released by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) there are 107,000 reported instances of fraud each year worth £1.2bn. However, the true scale of the crime is likely to be much larger due to instances that go unreported.  The financial crisis caused by the pandemic means that insurers are predicting insurance scams are likely to rise, particularly at a time when fraudsters are looking to take advantage of new technology and the surge in people taking to online services.

The IFB is a not-for-profit organisation which acts as a central intelligence hub for insurance industry members to share intelligence in order to help detect and disrupt fraud networks. IFB also works alongside police forces, regulators and industry watchdogs to build evidence and support enforcement activity. The launch of the new platform is a significant development in the quest to continually evolve and enhance services in order to keep pace with fraudsters and find ways to improve quality and timeliness of data.

With safe and secure access to shared fraud data - and the right tools, insight and analysis - organisations can detect and investigate fraud more effectively. The IFiHub allows users to share, analyse, monitor and investigate and the digital pathway will eventually see this being done in real-time. It has been used along with SAS analytics since 2019 and serves as an industry-scale intelligence database that detects suspected fraud rapidly across the widest possible spectrum.

For further information around the IFR, please refer to the website FAQs.