Équité had the honour of being the Canadian host of the Global Insurance Fraud Summit (GIFS), which brought together global anti-fraud leaders including CEOs from the largest P&C insurers around the world. Insurance crime is not confined by borders; it’s a global challenge. The 2025 Toronto GIFS gave international leaders, including Équité members, a forum to share learnings, create connections and foster conversations that will echo far beyond the Summit itself.

We were pleased to host Équité members at the Summit. Thank you to everyone who attended, and to those who shared their insights through panel discussions and presentations as we continue to focus on our unified goal of fighting insurance crime and fraud.

Opening the Summit

Louis Gagnon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intact, opened the event with a future-focused speech that looked at the intersection of climate change, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence in the P&C insurance space in Canada. While the trends are daunting, Louis’ insights were filled with optimism as the industry continues to collaborate with a unified goal of protecting and fighting insurance crime and fraud.

Louis set the stage for a full day of meaningful conversations with global insurance leaders.

Building on Louis’ insights, I spoke about Équité’s leadership in navigating technological change, our commitment to future readiness, and our focus on staying steady in a constantly shifting economy. As technology evolves, we are seeing criminals adapt, and through that adaption new vulnerabilities are emerging faster than ever. My goal at the Summit was to underscore the importance of insurance crime protection for the entire industry. Through investments in knowledge, infrastructure, and talent we will be positioned to spot deception and prevent crime.

Expert Panel Discussions

Panels throughout the day featured Équité’s leading experts in investigations and technology alongside executive leaders from our membership, TD Insurance and Co-operators.

• Fireside Chat North American Regulators: Terri O’Brien hosted North American Insurance Commissioner (NAIC) John King and FSRA’s Executive Vice President, Policy and Auto/Insurance Products Glen Padassery for an in-depth discussion about cross-border perspectives on fraud oversight and enforcement.
• Anti-Fraud Leadership Panel: Bryan Gast, National VP Investigative Services at Équité brought his Canadian expertise to a global discussion on anti-fraud approaches including a focus on information sharing and collaboration.
• International Executive Panel: Our member leaders Mindy Seibold, Senior Vice President and Chief Claims Officer at TDI, and VP of Claims for Co-operators, Craig Bran provided unique perspectives on shaping the future of global insurance fraud by exploring executive strategies and innovations.
• AI: Insurance Fraud’s Double-Edged Sword Panel: Angel Yau-Vandenburg, Chief Data & Technology Officer at Équité spoke to our success stories on using AI for fraud detection and prevention, what risks AI and GenAI pose, ethical considerations and governance frameworks insurers should adopt, and our focus on strengthening collaboration across the ecosystem to future proof our fight against fraud and keep industry one step ahead of bad actors.
• International Vehicle Crime Panel: Bryan Gast, National VP Investigations at Équité also shared Canadian-focused insights on the challenges and opportunities when it comes to combating transnational vehicle crimes.

Global P&C Insurance Fraud Trends

• Emerging Artificial Intelligence Technologies: Both Louis Gagnon and I focused our respective opening remarks around AI, and this theme was prevalent throughout the day. The same tools that make our systems smarter and more efficient are now becoming essential to protecting them. Our investment in AI isn’t for convenience, but for resilience and for the protection of our industry. The future of AI in fraud detection is being shaped by emerging trends that turn innovation into intelligent defense.
• Technology Frameworks: There are novel risks AI and GenAI pose, ethical considerations and governance frameworks that insurers have top of mind. Angel Yau-Vandenburg suggested our focus should remain on strengthening collaboration across the ecosystem to future proof our fight against fraud and keep industry one step ahead of bad actors. Tied into these considerations, panelists also pointed out the issue of data quality that could take away from the strength of ecosystems as technological models become more complex.
• Collaboration & Data Sharing: The importance of collaboration and data sharing was highlighted throughout the day. Our UK counterparts at the Insurance Fraud Bureau noted that their close ties with insurers help prevent insurance fraud. This sentiment was echoed by Bryan Gast who highlighted the significant shift that happened in auto theft in Canada once organizations began sharing data. We have already seen the positive impact in insurance crime identification and mitigation when we work together in Canada, and now it’s about maintaining the momentum.
• Emerging insurance fraud trends: Global P&C insurance organizations are seeing the rise more sophisticated types of fraud including identity theft, vehicle finance fraud, and falsified documentation using AI. Louis Gagnon also highlighted how multiple different areas can converge to create an environment that allows criminals to perpetrate fraud more frequently, such as catastrophic (CAT) events caused by climate change that have resulted in multiple false claims using AI-generated images.

I’d like to send a special thank you to our valued members who both attended and participated in the day, as well as to the GIFS leadership and volunteers on the steering committee for putting on an impactful event focused on the P&C industry. The insights and networking from this event will continue momentum in Canada and abroad as we work to protect Canadians from the impact of insurance crime and fraud.

‍