Page 35 - Life Insurance Today May 2016
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entity information is stored separately actioned and get flagged," he added. But that's not the only kind of fraud.
and is not available across entities," There are frauds against policyholders
added Jayaraman. At present, the system is live for ICICI as well. "We see high attrition among
Prudential and the repository is in the the junior sales staff, which
It will use the same system to screen process of completing tie-ups with the sometimes leads to data theft and
customer applications and claims in others. "Even in the case of ICICI subsequent mis-selling of policies
the life insurance industry as well. Prudential, we don't really have to through spurious calls. Then there are
Insurers who have tied up with wait for the insurer to share their some persons who are responsible for
Experian will do a handshake database. As we get customer misselling policies and manipulating
between the Hunter system and their applications, we can screen them documents. We plan to share a
own databases. "To start with, we will against the existing database from the negative list of all such people with
share a negative list. This list banking sector," added Jayaraman. Experian, so that there is an industry
comprises customers, employees and level negative list or repository,"
agents who have committed fraud or Finally, it's up to the insurer to deny added Sidhwa.
customers who are financially or or cancel the policy if already issued.
medically unfit. Subsequently, we will The industry is also working on a
share all the applications on an on- "The tie-up with Experian will help us repository that will capture trends
going basis," said Vijaya Nene, screen these applications and validate and profiles of customers and the
director, operation and services, PNB against the database from the sales force to check misselling. "The
Metlife India Insurance Co. Ltd. banking sector and also with the mandate for the fraud repository is to
negative list shared by the insurance screen applications for discrepancies
When you buy a life insurance policy, industry. If there are discrepancies, leading to a possible fraud. But it
you fill up the proposal form with all the system will show us the nature of doesn't profile customers. For
relevant details. Chosen data fields the discrepancy and finally it's up to instance, how many policies a
will be fed into the fraud repository, us to take a call," added Nene. customer owns? Is an agent making
which will check the details against its its policyholders surrender policies to
database. "In our experience, frauds Reining in fraud buy new ones? So, what the industry
are often committed through identity also needs is a risk repository that can
theft, so we don't run a check against For insurers it is important to fight profile customers, employees and
the negative list alone. Fraudsters are fraud as it affects underwriting policies distributors to capture trends and
able to duplicate 80-90% of and finally reflects in the premiums check misselling," said Sandeep
customers' details, but err on some that customers have to pay. "We are in Ghosh, chief executive officer and
information, which gets caught as a the business of paying claims and that managing director, Bharti AXA Life
discrepancy. exposes us to a lot of fraud. So fraud Insurance Co. Ltd. According to him,
intelligence is needed. But in India it's a number of life insurers are in talks
We tag that form, which can be difficult to track fraud due to a lack of with LexisNexis, a data analytics firm
accessed by the insurer for further a single identity number," said Nene. that provides risk solutions.
investigation. In most cases, the "In the developed world, for instance,
nature of a discrepancy itself indicates there is a single number that gets The industry is serious about
if it's fraud. In some cases, there is tagged when you make a financial combating fraud. Even as the first
need to investigate further," said transaction or get medical help. step starts with battling fraud by
Jayaraman. "Companies can choose to Verifying a person's track record is customers and subsequently against
integrate on Hunter in a batch or important as it helps us underwrite customers, it's good news for you. A
online mode. In the online mode, the policies better, which ultimately fraud and risk monitoring framework
information would flow to Hunter reduces claims and rejections," she is important for a mature market.
instantly and would immediately be added. (Source : Mint)
Tablets generally have made it pretty obvious that magazines have a new lease on life.
Life Insurance Today May 2016 35
