The South African Insurance Crime Bureau (SAICB) was officially launched in 2008 to address organised fraud and crime in the short term insurance industry. Since then, SAICB has established itself not only as a valuable tool in the fight against insurance fraud and related crimes, but has also brought the various agencies working in the broader fight against commercial crime closer together for the benefit of all.

While the main focus of the SAICB is to address organised fraud and crime, the SAICB also investigates repeat offenders and fraudsters that target multiple insurance companies. Our aim is not to replace the internal fraud investigation units of the insurance companies but to specifically look at fraud and crime being committed across the industry, and affecting multiple companies, i.e. syndicated crime and fraud.

This cannot be done in isolation as the insurance industry shares clients, intermediaries, sometimes service providers, and indeed criminals with other sectors in the financial industry. These industries include the broker fraternity, the life insurance industry, the medical schemes industry, the banks, and others. In fact, the ultimate aim of the SAICB is to create a joint initiative for the whole financial services industry and other related stakeholders to address crime and fraud through the sharing of information.