Aviva Canada has seen a 1,000% improve in reVINing since 2022. ReVINing is the apply of stealing a car and placing on a car identification quantity (VIN) that appears actual.
Not solely that, the insurer has seen a number of the single costliest Cat occasions this yr because the Fort McMurray, Alta., wildfire in 2016, Paul Tsipas, assistant vice chairman of property and company threat with Aviva Canada’s world company and specialty division, stated final week on the RIMS Canada Convention in Vancouver.
Auto theft is an ongoing development within the Canadian P&C insurance coverage trade. Though the nation noticed a 19% lower in insurance coverage claims for auto theft within the first half of the yr in comparison with 2023 H1, auto theft in Canada continues to soar above historical levels, Insurance coverage Bureau of Canada (IBC) reported earlier this month.
Re-VINing includes placing pretend VINs on autos and promoting them again to prospects who don’t know of the autos’ origins, Tsipas defined in the course of the session, The “Black Field” of Underwriting, Actuarial and Claims.
“Aviva has seen a 1,000% improve in reVINing because it was first recognized,” he stated. “We went from 10 investigations in 2022 to over 100 in 2023.”
Total, the insurer has seen a 44% improve in auto thefts since 2022. “Breaking it all the way down to the only parts, if you happen to occur to personal a Top 10 stolen vehicle in Canada, you’re at increased threat of experiencing a loss. Therefore, it might consider your insurance coverage premium.”
AI and fraud
Synthetic intelligence (AI) can also be serving to criminals enhance their fraud techniques. It may be used to shortly produce texts, emails and messages “in a method and language of a selected particular person,” Tsipas stated, including AI may even be used to clone somebody’s voice.
“In minutes, it will possibly use and make easy pretend pictures [and] movies of actual folks,” he stated. “We’re additionally seeing a rise in falsified invoicing.
“The usage of receipt mills, Google Maps, and easy enhancing packages makes fabricating invoicing an easier job for anybody to disregard,” Tsipas stated. “Generally, it’s onerous to inform what’s actual and what’s pretend.”
Cat roundup
From a NatCat perspective, final yr Aviva Canada had practically 8,000 claims throughout 17 Cat occasions with incurred losses of as much as $200 million, Tsipas reported.
This yr can also be shaping as much as be a pricey one, notably given the four major Cats this summer season — Toronto and southern Ontario floods ($940 million in insured injury); Jasper, Alta. wildfire ($880 million); Calgary hailstorm ($2.8 billion); and Quebec floods ($2.5 billion).
“In Calgary, Alberta, they’d hailstorms with hailstones as much as seven centimetres in diameter,” Tsipas stated. “This was the single-costliest occasion for Aviva because the Fort Mac wildfires in 2016.
“In Quebec, once more, they’ve skilled flooding as properly, with 8,000 residents evacuating their houses,” he stated.
IBC says the 2024 flooding in Quebec was the single-costliest NatCat within the province’s historical past, with insurers paying out extra $2.5 billion to restore the injury.
Thus far, the Canadian P&C trade is projected to pay out greater than $7.7 billion in insured losses this yr resulting from catastrophes, the bulk from the 4 summer season occasions. Final yr, the trade paid out $3.1 billion for the complete yr.
Function picture by iStock.com/andreswd
