Fraud is continuing to increase this year, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
The report found that 79 percent of anti-fraud professionals have seen an increase in the overall level of fraud as of November, compared to 77 percent in August and 68 percent in May. Thirty-eight percent of the respondents said in November the increase has been significant, compared to 34 percent in August and 25 percent in May.
Françoise Gilles is AXA Group Chief Risk Officer and a member of the Group Management Committee, after having served in the AXA Asia Region since 2019 first as Chief Risk Officer, then as Chief Strategic Development Officer in charge of steering AXA's strategy across the Region, based in Hong-Kong. Françoise joined AXA in 2013, as Head of ALM and Capital Management for AXA Bank Europe, before being appointed as Board Member and Chief Risk Officer for AXA Bank Belgium. Before moving to Asia, Francoise served as AXA Belgium Head of P&C Retail. Francoise has served as non-executive board member and member of Audit and Risk Committees to several entities, incl. AXA Banque France, AXA Philippines, AXA Tianping, AXA IM Architas. She started her career in 1998 with ING and Fortis in Belgium, where she built experience in the areas of ALM, risk management and valuation. Francoise Gilles graduated as Civil Engineer from the Université Catholique de Louvain in 1998 and is an actuary.
Al Codalbu serves as Senior Vice President of Employer Business at Embold Health, where he leads the company's fastest-growing segment—employer-focused sales. With nearly 20 years of industry experience, Al leads growth by connecting employers with actionable, data-driven insights and solutions to help employees access high-quality care.
Cyber fraud, payment fraud (such as schemes with debit and credit cards) and identity theft are the three top fraud schemes seeing increases, according to anti-fraud professionals.
The largest increase in observed fraud was in financial statement fraud, with 7 percent more anti-fraud professionals reported seeing financial statement fraud in November, compared to August. That could be because as companies continue to see their profits drop, they feel more pressure to cook the books.
The survey also found 77 percent of anti-fraud professionals report that investigating and preventing fraud is more challenging now, while 71 percent said detecting fraud is more challenging as a result of the pandemic.
ACFE members anticipate the fraud trend will continue, even as vaccines have begun rolling out this week in the U.S. Ninety percent of the survey respondents expect a further increase in the level of fraud over the next 12 months, with 44 percent predicting the change is likely to be significant.
Nearly half (48 percent) of the organizations polled expect to increase their investments in anti-fraud technology, and 38 percent intend to raise the use of fraud-related consultants or other external resources. Budgets for anti-fraud training and professional development are experiencing a similar increase (according to 37 percent of the organizations polled), but nearly one-quarter (24 percent) anticipate a decrease in this area. The budget component most likely to see decreases is travel for anti-fraud staff, which shouldn’t be surprising given the plunging levels of air travel in general over this past year, with 38 percent of the survey respondents expecting a reduction in funds for travel in the year ahead.
