JERSEY CITY, N.J., November 3, 2015 — Verisk Insurance Solutions, a leading source of information about property/casualty insurance risk, announced the launch of GarageConfirm™, a new service to help insurers verify garaging addresses at point of sale and renewal. The service uses license plate recognition technology provided by Digital Recognition Network (DRN), previously available only to law enforcement and auto lenders. Verisk Insurance Solutions is a Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK) business.
Garaging fraud, also known as “phantom garaging,” generally occurs when consumers register and insure a car in one place but keep and primarily operate it in another (typically in a location where insurance rates are higher) as a tactic to lower premiums. An estimated $2 billion in auto premiums is lost annually to garaging misrepresentation, and recent Verisk studies indicate the problem may be even more serious.
“Rate evasion plagues the insurance industry, amounting to billions of lost dollars for insurance providers and higher insurance costs for the public,” said John Cantwell, vice president of auto underwriting at Verisk Insurance Solutions. “Garaging fraud often goes undetected, and until now, it hasn’t been easy to identify. GarageConfirm provides unique vehicle location data and analysis to help insurers identify the garaging address.”
GarageConfirm taps into DRN’s vehicle location database — the largest of its kind — which contains more than 4 billion license plate sightings. GarageConfirm then measures the time, frequency, and proximity of vehicle sightings relative to a given address. Capturing geospatial data and grouping it into clusters of sightings, GarageConfirm tells insurers where a vehicle has recently been. Insurers can use the data to determine the validity of garaging addresses and commuting mileage, spot red flags that need further investigation, and recover lost premium.
GarageConfirm can add value at point of sale and renewal, before binding, to help ensure that the garaging address is accurate as provided. Insurers can also use the solution in conjunction with other Verisk offerings, such as RISK:check® Point of Sale, to identify fraud risk associated with an applicant.
“While GarageConfirm is well suited for high-cost, high-rate-evasion areas such as New York, many cases of fraud occur in low-cost or even rural settings where the customer claims to garage the vehicle,” said Alex Young, vice president of risk solutions at DRN. “Insurers will find GarageConfirm invaluable at the underwriting stage to write and price policies correctly and also during renewals for continuous rating integrity.”
For more information, go to www.verisk.com/garageconfirm.
About DRN
DRN is a leading provider of vehicle location data and analytics to the Financial Services, Insurance, and Asset Recovery industries. DRN’s vehicle location solutions enable clients to more effectively optimize their portfolios, reduce losses, detect fraud, and manage risk. As the industry pioneer in vehicle location data and license plate recognition technology, DRN covers every major metropolitan area in the United States and maintains the largest vehicle location database under strict standards of privacy, compliance, and data integrity. To find out more, visit www.drndata.com.
About Verisk Insurance Solutions
A Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK) business, Verisk Insurance Solutions is a leading source of information about property/casualty insurance risk. Drawing upon vast experience in data management, security, and predictive modeling to serve its clients, Verisk Insurance Solutions includes the industry-leading brands of ISO, AIR Worldwide, and Xactware. In the United States and around the world, Verisk Insurance Solutions helps customers protect people, property, and financial assets. For more information, visit www.verisk.com/insurance.
