WIREDGOV

The COVID-19 pandemic forced governments around the world to take swift and extraordinary actions to help support businesses and citizens impacted by a crisis that brought the world to a standstill for months.

One key measure introduced in May 2020 by the U.K. Government, via the British Business Bank (BBB), was the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), designed to help small and midsize businesses borrow between £2,000 and £50,000 at a low interest rate – loans guaranteed by the U.K. Government.

Banks and other commercial lenders administered more than £47 billion in loans through the BBLS to over 1.5 million companies. However, according to the latest estimates from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 7.5% of the loans guaranteed have been identified as potentially fraudulent.

Given how rapidly the U.K. Government had to move to provide COVID-19 relief, and how quickly fraudsters inevitably act to take advantage of any situation ripe for exploitation, economic crime at some level was unavoidable. Now the U.K. Government is moving swiftly to track down those who defrauded the system and return as much of the ill-gotten taxpayers’ money as possible.

“Quantexa has helped us narrow in on the right type of fraud — and the right type of fraud typologies—to surface networks of interest that we deem to be very high risk.”

Craig Martin, Fraud Analytics Lead & Head of Programme,
U.K. Cabinet Office

Submit your details below to access this latest case study and discover how your organisation can identify potentially fraudulent loans: