KPMG to set up a regional fraud intelligence unit

What you need to know:

The firm, which launched the East Africa Fraud Risk Survey last year, has been rooting for a regional database and intelligence communities to fight the vice.
Fraud is one of the most important factors affecting insurance companies with the advisory firm estimating that it adds a fifth of the cost to a cover across the region.
A global profile of the fraudsters reveals proactive analytics play an astonishingly minor role in combating fraud, with only three per cent of the fraudsters being detected in this manner.

Advisory services firm KPMG plans to set up a regional fraud intelligence platform to help firms forecast their clients’ risks.

James Norman, associate director business development at KPMG Kenya, said the firm was working on the framework which will be presented to stakeholders in August.

“We will be holding an East Africa fraud forum, the first of its kind, to facilitate brokers’ agents and all players in the sector around the region to team up to improve the frameworks that manage this risk through focused solutions,” he said.

The firm, which launched the East Africa Fraud Risk Survey last year, has been rooting for a regional database and intelligence communities to fight the vice.

Kenya’s Insurance Regulatory Authority’s (IRA) has reported that fraud cases in the sector rose 60 per cent in the first three months of 2015 compared to a previous similar period, thanks to motor insurance. Fraud is one of the most important factors affecting insurance companies with the advisory firm estimating that it adds a fifth of the cost to a cover across the region.

IRA has been battling the rising cases of fraud and even formed a fraud investigation unit in 2011 staffed by trained police officers. The regulator has been seeking powers to prosecute offenders to hasten the legal process.

“To combat it we need to work together. Kenya already has a strong perception of the risk so there is a good platform to launch these solutions,” Mr Norman said.

He said that while the cheats have turned to technology to commit financial crimes, industry players are not using available analytics to nab them.

According to a new report by KPMG International, technology is a significant enabler for a quarter (24 per cent) of the 750 fraudsters investigated by forensic specialists across 81 countries.

However, the global profile of the fraudsters reveals proactive analytics play an astonishingly minor role in combating fraud, with only three per cent of the fraudsters being detected in this manner.