Dunfermline hunts down risk

Dunfermline Building Society has taken on fraud database software as a hosted service to support business expansion and reduce the risk of operating in new local markets.

Scotland's largest mutual lender, Dunfermline is using Experian's Hunter software to manage data sharing and help combat the potential for fraud. It went with the system at the end of June.

Hunter is designed to identity fraud by checking new applications for financial products against previous applications, claims and fraud databases, shared between Experian and its financial service customers.

Crawford McCaughie, Dunfermline Building Society senior lending manager told IT PRO the fraud detection functionality would be a key tool in reducing the risk of expanding its business further into the English lending and mortgage market.

"We know the Scottish market well," he said. "But Hunter allows us to support expansion into England. We'll be able to measure our data against the resources of the database." He added that the new system would augment in-house risk and fraud monitoring systems to head off any moves to target it as a new lender to the market.

Interrogating and cross-referencing many sources of information is not only making fraudulent applications easier to spot for the Society, but McCaughie said it is also making its detection processes more efficient. Suspicious cases are immediately flagged to staff, who can then progress any possible investigation.

"We are getting matches on a regular basis," he said. "We reckon it wouldn't take a lot of fraud for the system to pay for itself."

He also said the hosted delivery model provided for Hunter enabled the organisation to be up and running quickly, while minimising the additional workload for the IT department.

"The web-based was a great attraction," said McCaughie. "This helps us control additional risk, while we don't need an army of technical people to manage it."

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