A multiple perspective view to rampant fraudulent culture in the Indian insurance industry

Abstract

Insurance fraud is a complex term understudied in management and governance literature. Insurance fraud consists of policyholder fraud, internal fraud and intermediary fraud. It can be measured at four stages ranging from hard frauds to rampant fraudulent culture. An attention is needed to understand the reasons of rampant fraudulent culture in India. This is the first study (as per author's knowledge) on fraudulent culture in Indian insurance industry that provides broad overview of what insurance fraud is, types of insurance fraud, role of different parties involved, reasons of rampant insurance frauds, strategies adopted and the way forward. The results revealed that direct responsibility of combating insurance fraud is not provided to any institutions, therefore fraud redressal takes a backseat in priorities. Corporates have adopted proactive, reactive and vigilant approaches and used fraud investigation cells, cause and effect analysis and trend analysis to understand the fraudulent culture.