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Commercial crime insurance

Safeguard against fraud and deception with tailored coverage for evolving risks, from employee dishonesty to social engineering and AI-driven scams.
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Crime is increasingly recognised as a significant and evolving threat to businesses. 

While traditional risks such as employee dishonesty, collusion, and hacking or computer-related crime remain a concern, technology has introduced more complex and sophisticated threats that are harder to detect and control.

The crime risks businesses cannot ignore

Today’s crime risks extend well beyond familiar types of fraud. Social engineering and deepfake technology are enabling more convincing impersonation schemes, while third-party fraud is growing in complexity. While such risks earlier mainly affected financial institutions owing to the nature of their businesses, in recent years, we have witnessed a significant surge in fraud cases that have impacted our clients in the technology, manufacturing, and e-commerce sectors.

  • Rising fraud and losses: AI-driven impersonation scams, deepfakes, and social engineering attacks are escalating.
  • Greater risk in a connected workplace: Remote work, automation, and reliance on digital systems widen the attack surface.
  • Gaps in existing insurance coverage: Many organisations assume they are covered, only to discover gaps after a loss.

These risks highlight the dynamic and unpredictable nature of crime, making it increasingly difficult for organisations of all sizes to anticipate and mitigate potential losses effectively.

What does commercial crime insurance cover?

As fraud becomes more sophisticated, prevention alone is no longer enough. A well-structured commercial crime insurance policy provides financial protection when deception bypasses controls.

Employee white-collar fraud

Marsh data shows that around 50% of crime policy notifications are for employee fidelity losses, involving trusted employees, often in senior roles, who exploit systems for personal gain.

Third-party fraud

External partners or suppliers may manipulate invoices or payment details to divert funds to fraudulent accounts.

Collusion

Fraud becomes harder to detect when employees collude with each other or external parties, bypassing internal controls.

Hacking or computer-related crime

While crime policies usually exclude ransomware attacks, most will cover direct financial losses from funds stolen by hackers infiltrating your systems through phishing or other attacks.

Social engineering fraud

Criminals impersonate executives using email, phone, or even deepfake technology to deceive staff into transferring funds.

Tangible asset theft

Protects against the theft of cash or valuables, including safes, vaults, and other high-value property.

Marsh helps organisations navigate the complexity of crime insurance, where definitions and extensions differ across insurers, to secure coverage aligned with their risks.

Identify your crime exposure and determine appropriate commercial crime insurance limits to safeguard your business against evolving crime risks.

Marsh can also offer infill and top-up social engineering cover in excess of existing programmes.

Discover seven key actions to build a holistic risk management strategy to stay ahead of deepfake-related fraud — from employee training to regular insurance reviews.

Why Marsh

Our proven experience in placing complex crime programmes, ranging from £10 million to £100 million, ensures that your organisation receives protection tailored to its operational exposures.

We are not just a transactional broker. Throughout renewal and placement, we provide insights on emerging risks, claim examples and lessons learned, market conditions and product education relevant to our clients. Our team of brokers and former practising lawyers brings deep coverage expertise and delivers innovative solutions. 

Marsh’s data analysis and benchmarking on buying behaviour, limit purchases, retentions, programme structures, rate analysis and exposure quantification enable our clients to make more informed decisions and support negotiations for preferential pricing. 

Our people

Zelda Pitman

Senior Client Executive, Management Liability

  • United Kingdom

Gavin Farrow

Placement Specialist, Norwich Retail team, Management Liability

  • United Kingdom

Jessica Luff

London Retail Placement Broker, Management Liability

  • United Kingdom

Talk to us

Contact us to get in touch with an industry or risk subject matter expert, learn more about a specific solution or submit a sales/RFP inquiry.

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