Fairfirst saves more than millions in attempted fraud with Big Data Analytics

On a daily basis, Fairfirst usually gets over 400 smart alerts on possible fraudulent activity related to underwriting and claims across all business portfolios.

What is a smart alert? In relevance to the literal meaning itself, it is a notification to Fairfirst about an abnormal transaction that takes place, in this sense, a possible fraudulent activity. To elaborate further, in the past 10 weeks, Fairfirst Motor Claims team has received 1,973 alerts, out of which 100 claims have been further analysed, enabling a total saving of more than a million rupees.

Fairfirst Insurance Limited, partnering with the services of the local tech firm, Forestpin, recently implemented Big Data Analytics capability in its fastgrowing operation. On that note, Fairfirst could be considered as one of the local business leaders to adopt Big Data Analytics with the aim of improving productivity, business gain and profitability.

“Every piece of data is unique and it is essential to manage and accurately analyse every piece of it. With ever-expanding databases, insurance fraud has become a major issue in the local industry. The global average rate of motor fraud in the insurance sector is between 9 percent and 10 percent.

However, by using Big Data, we now have the capability to identify and prevent such fraud. Big Data Analytics, together with Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning, have emerged as powerful business tools to predict the behaviour of an individual, machine or any entity. We are proud to say the success of this technology has definitely made a positive impact on our business,” stated Senior Manager Actuarial Lakmali Gunasekara.

General insurance companies usually deal with huge chunks of data, be it with regard to motor, health, travel, property or marine insurance. Therefore, it is vital to analyse large amounts of data to uncover hidden patterns or unknown correlations and customer preferences.

By analysing data, it opens the opportunities to gain insights on operational inefficiencies and customer behaviour, including possible frauds. Identification of such patterns could result in enhanced efficiencies in operations leading to higher service standards and customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is crucial to precisely analyse such data loads from policy issuance to a claim settlement.

Commenting further, Forestpin Director Dilanke Hettiaratchi stated, “Investing in good technology alone does not drive success. It’s the combination of the right technology, project team and vendor that drives the success. In this respect, it has been a pleasure to work with the teams at Fairfirst Insurance, who have been extremely professional and helpful. We are extremely delighted that Fairfirst is seeing improved results in operations with the implementation of Big Data Analytics.”