Commercial insurance: Fighting fraud with one hand tied behind our backs

Given the disparity in the information gathered, is it any wonder that there is a migration of fraud from the heavier policed personal lines market to the soft underbelly of commercial insurance?

In personal lines it is much easier to gather information to combat fraud. There is a person (or persons), we get their name, address and date of birth and that is enough to identify them and do whatever checks we need. In commercial lines, we get a name of a business, limited or non-limited, or the name of an individual(s) trading as a non-limited business… and no date of birth.

At the same time customer demand means that we need to be serving our customers faster and with minimum friction. The increasing pace and the fact that much SME business is traded online, means that the fraudster’s job is made that much easier.

This content highlights the challenges facing commercial lines insurers and the tools available to help them understand the ownership structures of specific organisations in order to combat fraud.