Tuesday 15th September, 2015

According to a recent report by Experian more than two thirds of organisations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa have cited the availability of data as a key barrier to managing fraud.

The report highlights, that Availability of data that could play a vital role in combatting fraud over the next five years is poor, according to 69 per cent of telecoms and financial services providers in EMEA.

Only 21 per cent of organisations have rated the availability of data to manage fraud over the next five years as excellent. Crucially, only 59 per cent have admitted that the data they have is usable.

The report analysed the responses of 255 key decision makers from 195 telecoms and financial services organisations in eight regions across EMEA.

Charles Butterworth, Managing Director, Experian, EMEA, said: "Fraud is a major challenge for all organisations across borders, and data plays a vital role when it comes to the prevention of that fraud. We are hearing that the quality and usability of data to manage fraud is less than optimal, meaning the speed, accuracy and consistency of decisions are being compromised."

When it comes to the quality of the data that is available, Experian’s report found a more positive picture. Almost two in five (39 per cent) believe the quality is excellent and nearly one in two (48 per cent) say it is adequate.

However, 57 per cent feel that the tools using this data to help them make their decisions are less than optimal. Furthermore, fraud integration across internal systems ranks as the top challenge for organisations in the next five years, as recognised by 78 per cent.

As a result of these issues, nearly half of the telecom and financial services organisations surveyed expect the speed, accuracy and consistency of decisions related to fraud to continue to be poor over the next five years.