By: 11 January 2023
Allianz Commercial detects fraudulent activity worth £70.7m

The value of fraud that Allianz Commercial detected in 2022 increased 11.2% over the previous year to £70.7m.

Allianz put its “fraud-busting success” in 2022 down to “excellent collaboration” across its own teams, suppliers and the wider insurance industry.

Property and casualty (P&C) saw the greatest increase in fraud savings over the prior year.

Although the number of P&C fraud cases declined last year, the value of each case detected increased to record level.

According to Allianz, this shift toward P&C fraud may indicate a move away from traditional types of motor fraud such as crash-for-cash scams.

Despite this trend, Allianz said the insurance industry “continues to see vastly exaggerated motor claims”.

Application fraud, where a customer provides false information to purchase a policy, has grown significantly, suggesting front-end controls are detecting these lies and fabrications more effectively, according to Allianz.

And regarding fraud at claims stage, machine learning has been increasingly helpful in detecting dishonest attempts.

James Burge (pictured), head of counter fraud at Allianz Commercial, commented: “At each economic downturn, insurers usually see fraud escalate. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, we didn’t want our honest customers to bear any additional costs from fraudsters, which is why we were determined to detect and defeat fraud in order to protect them.”

Image: Allianz