FICO, a provider of analytics and decision management technology, announces theavailability of a new solution aimed at helping insurers curbinsurance claims fraud. The FICO Claims Fraud Solution uses threeintegrated technologies to identify fraudulent insurance claimsfaster, in order to help insurers cut general insurance fraudlosses that last year reached an estimated $52 billion worldwide,according to research and advisory firm Celent.

Challenging economic conditions have pushed many kinds ofinsurance fraud, such as auto claims fraud, to new highs in marketsworldwide. In theU.S., insurance fraud accounts for an estimated 10to 20 percent of insurance premiums; that number climbs as high as25 to 30 percent in other markets, such asBrazil.

A single scheme uncovered by the FBI in February 2012 racked upan estimated $279 million in losses.

The FICO Claims Fraud solution provides an integrated set ofthree fraud fighting technologies to catch more fraud. Predictivemodels based on neural networks, modeled after the human brain,identify potential fraud either at the point of sale or at firstnotice of loss, so that insurers can catch fraud before the claimis paid. The results are prioritized so that investigation actionsare more efficient, focusing on those claims most likely to befraud.

Fraud investigators can use FICO's businessrules management system, to identify suspicious claims that matchknown fraud schemes. With the solution's link analysiscapabilities, fraud investigators can scour claims data to findpreviously undetected fraud based on connections to confirmed fraudcases found by the business rules or FICO analytics. This techniqueis useful for uncovering fraud rings, such as "cash for crash" autofraud schemes where criminals cause collisions with innocentdrivers in order to file fraudulent whiplash and other claims. FICOestimates the combination of predictive analytics, link analysis,and business rules finds up to 50 percent more fraud over arules-based system alone.

"Personal lines and commercial lines claims deserve the samevigilance that insurers are already applying to healthcareinsurance fraud, waste, and abuse," says Russ Schreiber, vicepresident and insurance practice leader at FICO. "FICO has been theleader in analytics-based fraud detection over the last 20 years,and we're applying our advanced analytic approach to give personallines insurers the most powerful protection on the market."