Summit History
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Like many great things, the Global Insurance Fraud Summit began as one man’s idea. Following many years of watching the world of insurance fraud evolve, noted anti-fraud leader, Dennis Toomey, saw a need and envisioned a way for leading insurance fraud organizations from both the private and government sectors, to come together and share information on the latest trends in insurance fraud scams and efforts to combat fraud from across the globe.
Dennis reached out to key strategic partners such as ALFA in France, the International Association of Special Investigators and U.S. anti-fraud organizations including the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud which all agreed to support the Summit.
The first Global Insurance Fraud Summit was held in 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. Sixteen nations responded to the initial call and participated in this first ever gathering of International Anti-Fraud leaders. As the initial Summit drew to a close, attendees vowed to support the Summit and gather again in the next year.
COVID-19 had other ideas, but even a worldwide pandemic could not stop, or slow, the Global Insurance Fraud Summit. Virtual Summits were held in 2020 and 2021. While a virtual platform did not afford the ability to forge new friendships and working partnerships, it did allow the message of the Global Insurance Fraud Summit to spread to many more nations. The first virtual Summit occurred over 4 days with 40 speakers attended by more than 28 countries. 2021 saw even more growth with more than 848 attendees signing in for the Summit’s opening keynote address where the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud released the largest study ever undertaken on the “Globalization of Insurance Fraud.”
As the pandemic eased, in 2022 the Global Insurance Fraud Summit returned to its original in-person platform with a gathering of 15 nations in Lisbon, Portugal. The Global Insurance Fraud Summit is a working meeting – following two productive days of sessions stretching from dawn to dusk using lunche breaks as working sessions, the decision was made to expand the Summit to a three-day event.
Edinburgh, Scotland was the site of the 2023 Global Insurance Fraud Summit. More than 25 countries gathered to address the topic of “Transnational Organized Crime.” Featuring a keynote address on the impact of Transnational Organized Crime in the Insurance Industry by the Honorable David Glawe, CEO of the U.S. Based National Insurance Crime Bureau, and former Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis. The 3-day Summit included international regulatory and law enforcement panels, presentations by INTERPOL, Insurance Europe, the Insurance Service of Malaysia Insurance (ISM) and many others. Fulfilling its mission as a working Summit, the delegates also unanimously adopted the first-ever world-wide definition of what insurance fraud means.