5 March 2008

Detica Group plc (DCA.L), the information intelligence specialist, today launches Detica NetReveal® 5, the next generation of its crime-busting social network analytics software. The groundbreaking solution — unveiled at the CIFAS "Fighting Application Fraud" conference today in central London — provides retail banks with one of the most powerful tools available to combat credit abuse and other forms of non-compliance.

Credit abuse networks are a growing problem for the retail banking sector and a source of increasing concern given the ongoing credit crunch. Variously known as "first party lending fraud", "sleeper fraud" and "bust-out fraud", credit abuse involves organised fraudsters making false statements on application forms in order to gain credit which they have no intention of paying back. As Andy Cobb, Director of Business Development at Detica, comments: "There is also a growing trend in credit applicants being manipulated by organised fraudsters even though they may not have made any material falsehoods. This high risk activity currently falls between the 'organised first party fraud' and 'bad debt' definitions being debated by the banking industry. We believe a better approach is to let the data drive the definitions, not the other way round — someone intends to take money from the bank and they need to be stopped".

Detica NetReveal® 5 is the latest extension to the successful Detica NetReveal® portfolio — a suite of solutions that utilises social network analysis to fight fraud and serious crime across the insurance, financial services and government sectors. The crime-busting capabilities of Detica NetReveal® grabbed the headlines last summer when the UK's Insurance Fraud Bureau announced that the software's sophisticated analytics had enabled it to expose insurance fraud networks leading to 74 arrests in the Bureau's first year. Since then HSBC and RBS Insurance have added Detica NetReveal® to their counter-fraud armouries.

Detica NetReveal® 5 takes fraud prevention one step further, enabling high-speed checks of credit applicants' details against pre-scored criminal networks during the live application process. Until today, banks lacked this pre-emptive analytical capability to identify fraudsters and credit abusers and prevent them from becoming customers. Furthermore, as well as working in the "front office" with new customer applications, Detica NetReveal® 5 also functions in the "back office" where existing customers are scored as they request additional credit facilities.

Cobb continues: "Detica NetReveal® 5 will give banks the most detailed view ever of the individuals to whom they are considering lending. Not only it is a breakthrough in preventing credit abuse, but its ability to explain transparently why a customer, application or linked-in network might be suspicious is unique in the field. We are delighted to be able to offer financial institutions the means of significantly improving the way they manage credit risk in these increasingly turbulent economic times."

Sally Clift or Rachel Ringstead Porter NovelliTel: +44 (0)207 853 2222email: or