Asmir Imeri, founder and CEO of S.O.I. AG, relies on a combination of a digital brokerage platform, exclusive financing solutions and a dedicated learning world to train independent financial and insurance advisors to become genuine mortgage specialists.

In an interview with thebrokernews, he talks about the challenges in the mortgage market, his path from construction drawing to the financial sector and why brokers need to rethink their role now more than ever.

Mr. Imeri, you started with an apprenticeship as a draughtsman and then moved into mortgage brokerage via the finance and insurance sector. What was the decisive moment for you to change this chapter?

When I started working for an asset management company in 2012, I realized that the demand for home ownership and mortgage advice would increase significantly over the next ten years. I wanted to be part of this development and build something of my own that would intelligently meet this demand.

In April 2021, you founded S.O.I. AG with the vision of connecting the world of financial and insurance advisors with the world of mortgages. What gap did you identify in the market back then?

I have seen that many financial and insurance advisors would also like to offer their clients mortgage advice, but they lack the expertise, experience and access to mortgage lenders. Today, we are closing this gap by offering them know-how, technology and a network.

Your “Chameleon-H” platform automates many steps of the mortgage brokerage process: from checking affordability to submitting a dossier. What specific changes does this technology bring for brokers?

Agents can process recurring work steps efficiently and use their time more productively. The platform helps them to serve more customers and increase the quality of advice at the same time.

You talk about seeing brokers not just as lead generators, but as genuine financing partners. What does that mean in concrete terms and how does it change the business model for brokers?

I don’t want advisors who simply pass on their clients as “leads”. There is usually a long-standing relationship of trust between advisor and client and this should be maintained. The advisor continues to look after their client directly, with our support in the background. Customers really appreciate this because they know that their advisor is really acting in their interests.

A central element of your strategy is the training of mortgage specialists via your learning world. Why is this training more important today than ever before?

Because expertise enables quality. I am convinced that the market will consolidate strongly without sound knowledge, and that is a good thing. Anyone who brokers mortgages should understand what they are doing. Otherwise it’s like typing in a mathematical formula without knowing that “dot before dash” applies.

In the “Family Office Mortgages” area, you serve sophisticated construction and real estate projects with more complex financing structures. How does this special financing differ from traditional mortgages and what role does S.O.I. play in this?

In the case of construction and real estate projects, the term is significantly longer, the volumes are higher and more parties are involved. In addition, financing is often provided in several tranches over different phases. We see ourselves as a conductor who ensures that every note is played at the right time.

The Swiss mortgage market is facing several challenges: rising customer expectations, higher regulatory requirements, digitalization. From your perspective, which two or three trends will shape the market the most in the next 2-3 years?

I am convinced that customers will increasingly approach brokers directly to finance their mortgage. At the same time, the proportion of those who want to handle their financing independently using digital tools will rise.
In addition, the shortage of skilled workers and high wage costs mean that repetitive processes are being automated systematically, and the technical possibilities for this have long been available.

You work with a broad network of banks, insurance companies and pension funds. How do you ensure that these partner networks deliver real added value for both brokers and end customers?

Loyalty and trust, coupled with a shared understanding of quality and strong implementation skills – that is our recipe for success. This significantly reduces idle time and increases the success of the deal.

We are also very careful in our dealings with our financing partners: we don’t ask for five offers at the same time, but usually one or a maximum of two. The added value of a third or fourth offer is practically zero. Unfortunately, there are brokers who do exactly that – supposedly in the interests of the customer. In reality, however, they put the needs of the mortgage lender in the background and weaken trust in the entire process. Our approach is different: focus, fairness and efficiency – this is how we create sustainable added value for everyone involved.

Many brokers are complaining about falling margins and increasing competitive pressure. How are you responding to these market conditions with your offering?

We give every broker the opportunity to generate higher income in the mortgage market with their existing customers. The price for this is further training in line with my motto: “No brokerage without further training.”

When you look back on the founding phase of S.O.I.: What were the biggest stumbling blocks and what experiences proved particularly valuable?

One challenge was to overcome the “professional blindness” of the traditional mortgage world and to consistently rethink the loan application process from an IT perspective. It was particularly valuable to realize that when day-to-day business and technology mesh perfectly, innovation knows no boundaries.

Sustainability and efficiency are becoming increasingly important in the financial and real estate sector. Does S.O.I. have corresponding approaches, e.g. sustainable financing or energy-efficient real estate projects?

Yes, definitely. The issue of sustainability is coming from all sides today: Customers, developers and financing partners. Our task is to reconcile the expectations of mortgage borrowers with the offers of mortgage lenders.

What is your roadmap for the next five years? What milestones are you aiming for with S.O.I. in terms of growth, technology and market positioning?

After reaching break-even and the proof of concept, we are now in the growth phase and are preparing for scaling. Our goal is to build the largest freelance mortgage team in Switzerland and further consolidate our position as a center of excellence for mortgage financing.
We can use the data and experience we have gathered to build on AI-based systems in the future. I can already say today that we are working on something that will play a decisive role in shaping the future of the mortgage market.

Finally, what advice would you give to a financial or insurance advisor who wants to enter the mortgage market today and what should they pay particular attention to?

Set your sights on long-term customer loyalty, continue to educate yourself and start with your existing customers.

And never forget: Every year, around CHF 100 billion in mortgages are refinanced or refinanced in Switzerland – the market is huge for all those who work competently and consistently.

The questions were asked by Binci Heeb.

Read also: Home ownership with risk: every second buyer uses a pension fund

The Federal Council is realigning the digital healthcare system and wants to replace the current EPD with the electronic health record (E-HD), which will be automatically opened to the entire population. The new law would fundamentally clarify tasks, responsibilities and financing. The e-health record will become the key to a networked, transparent and patient-centered healthcare system. Automatic, binding and life-long, with clear responsibilities, secure funding and a strong focus on personal responsibility.

Until now, the electronic patient record has been perceived by the public as a tool for sick people, perhaps useful, but far removed from most people’s everyday lives. With the new electronic health record (EHR), this view is set to change fundamentally. The dossier is intended to accompany citizens from birth: not only for diagnoses and treatments, but also for vaccinations, screening and prevention. It will become a life-long tool that no longer sees health as just a medical record, but as personal health capital. Digital, secure and accessible at all times.

Why the first attempt failed

The previous electronic patient dossier fell short of its potential not for technical but for structural reasons. As neither patients nor outpatient service providers were obliged to join, it was never used across the board. Decentralized implementation made exchange, standards and further development difficult. In addition, there was a complex certification system that slowed down the introduction. There was also a lack of a clear financing perspective. The result: many pilot projects, little everyday benefit, hardly any acceptance.

Digital change with system and control

With the total revision, the Federal Council is drawing the consequences: The technical infrastructure will be operated centrally in a national information system that ensures interoperability, security and efficiency. The cantons are responsible for operation in the sense of a public service and can involve local communities, which, however, act primarily as service and support points. For the first time, responsibilities between the federal government, cantons and service providers are clearly defined in technical, organizational and financial terms.

Automatic opening with full self-determination

The new system is based on the opt-out model: every person living in Switzerland automatically receives an electronic health record free of charge – as long as they do not actively object. This removes the hurdle of voluntary registration. Nevertheless, informational self-determination remains intact. Owners continue to decide for themselves which data is released – and who is allowed to see it. Every access is logged so that it remains transparent who accesses which information and when. This strengthens trust and digital health literacy.

A digital link for the entire healthcare system

E-GD will be mandatory for all service providers who bill health, accident, disability or military insurance. This will create an end-to-end digital supply chain for the first time – from the village doctor’s surgery to the pharmacy, hospital, rehabilitation and long-term care. Treating specialists will benefit in particular if imaging data, medication lists or laboratory values can be viewed directly instead of being collected multiple times.

What will change for me?

From the medical record to the healthcare platform

The E-GD is more than just a digital folder for medical findings. It is an expression of a cultural change: away from a passive role for patients towards active, informed and confident participation in their health. Those who have an overview of diagnoses, vaccinations, medication plans or preventive check-ups make more informed decisions. Health becomes a transparent process that can be shaped.

A digital foundation for the future

The new law creates structures that go far beyond the E-GD: It opens up prospects for digitally supported prevention, personalized medicine and networked care. It turns the healthcare dossier into not just another IT project, but the basis for a resilient, coordinated, transparent and sustainable healthcare system.

Introduction

The next step is for Parliament to consider the draft law. It can make amendments or reject the Federal Council’s proposal. If the bill is adopted, the federal government will procure the new central IT infrastructure so that the electronic health dossier can probably be introduced at the beginning of 2030.

Binci Heeb

Read also: Electronic patient dossier: Why Switzerland is lagging behind – and how Germany is setting the pace

Shortly before the start of the new statutory training obligations, the communication surrounding Cicero, myVBV and recertification is causing uncertainty in the industry. An email inquiry from an agent and the VBV’s response show how great the need for information is and what clarity has now been created.

The Cicero platform will be discontinued at the end of 2025 due to the new legal situation. A new sector register will provide information on tied insurance intermediaries from 2026. The FINMA register already provides information on brokers (independent intermediaries).

From January 2026, the mandatory recertification phase will begin for many brokers. For many companies, this means defining processes, preparing employees and setting training budgets.

Alexander E. Kunz, who represents around 40 independent brokers with Union Swiss Brokers Holding AG, reacted with corresponding surprise. In his e-mail to the insurance industry’s professional training association VBV, he criticized the late and, in his view, inadequate communication on two key points:

• Obligation to pay for myVBV – or not after all
• Postponement or clear deadlines for the recertification of Cicero members

According to Kunz, it was precisely because license costs of over CHF 300 were involved that the uncertainty for the specialists concerned was great.

VBV provides clarity: Digital learning path free of charge: but only once

The VBV’s response confirms key points that are relevant for all intermediaries:

1. one-time free access to myVBV

All existing insurance brokers whose data is transferred to the new examination database will receive full access to the digital learning path once and free of charge.

However, this does not apply to new entrants from 2026 onwards. They must acquire a license.

2. clear legal deadline for proof of further training

By August 22, 2026, all intermediaries must provide proof of further training for the first time.
This can be fulfilled in full via the Cicero further training requirement.

3. deferral for active Cicero members

Anyone who was an active Cicero member on July 1, 2025 will receive longer deadlines:

• Initial recertification audit by December 31, 2027
• Official call-up will take place on December 31, 2026

The VBV thus confirms that Cicero members are relieved of the burden of their previous training activities.

The information that myVBV will apparently be free of charge “is therefore probably positive”, but comes far too late, according to Kunz.

What does this mean for brokers and companies?

The VBV’s response takes pressure off the industry, but also reveals a structural problem:
Short-term communication makes planning and reliability difficult.

In concrete terms, this means for brokerage houses:

• Cost planning: The digital learning path is free of charge for existing brokers – an important relief signal.
• Process planning: Companies must ensure that the first proof of further training is provided by August 2026.
• Risk management: Unclear communication remains a factor that complicates internal processes.

A step towards clarity – but potential for improvement remains

With the VBV’s response, key points relating to further training and recertification obligations have now been officially confirmed. The industry has been given some peace of mind, but the desire for early, consistent communication remains.

One thing is clear for intermediaries: the new training processes are coming – and they are coming fast. However, with the structure now communicated, companies can begin to prepare their employees in a targeted manner.

Binci Heeb

Read also: Supplement to the article: “Cicero: What follows the seal of approval for insurance advisors?”

Brokers were once ridiculed and underestimated as the “wine and dine group”. Today, they are central architects of risk management with a portfolio that goes far beyond traditional insurance brokerage. Paul the Insurer shows why brokers today are empaths, strategists and bridge builders between risks, health, wealth and talent and why young talents find a future with meaning and diversity here.

Just a few decades ago, brokers were seen as aggressive competition for insurance agents, and reinsurers saw them primarily as networking professionals. Today, their profile has changed fundamentally. International brokerage houses are positioning themselves as central navigation points for companies when it comes to risks, provision and securing the future.

Their core task remains risk management, i.e. advising on risk financing and insurance instruments. But their role no longer ends there.

Health, wealth and talent solutions: The expanded playing field

Brokers have consistently expanded their range of services:

• Health solutions: Supporting companies to improve the health, well-being and productivity of their employees while controlling costs.
• Wealth solutions: Advice on optimizing investment results and financial stability, both institutionally and individually.
• Talent solutions: Developing HR and talent strategies that make organizations resilient and fit for the future.

Brokers have long since become interdisciplinary consultants whose impact extends far beyond the insurance market.

Insurance consulting as a profession with depth

Paul the Insurer describes the industry as fascinatingly diverse, ideal for young people looking for a career that combines economic, social and human responsibility. Those who work in insurance consulting combine disciplines such as: Mathematics, Psychology, Economics, Medicine, Finance or Geology.

This diversity not only opens up intellectual breadth, but also professional meaningfulness.

Why empathy is becoming a success factor

Technical expertise is important, but not enough. Brokers and advisors are only successful if they understand people: their concerns, goals, priorities and risk awareness.

Empathy is not a “soft skill”, but the foundation of every consultation. It creates trust and thus also the basis for effective risk and pension strategies.

Insurance consulting shapes the future

Insurance has long been more than just selling policies. It is the ability to make risks visible, build resilience and enable companies and people to shape the future.

Binci Heeb

Subscribe to the “Paul the Insurer” newsletter here.

Read also: Paul the Insurer 25: Rethinking risk management – get out of your comfort zone!

Traditions still characterize risk management today, but the Risk!n Conference 2025 impressively demonstrated why change is long overdue. Inspiring food for thought and a clear call to action: Dare to do something new!

The insurance industry is characterized by decades of practice and constant change. In the Paul the Insurer podcast, Paul describes how risk management can outgrow its image as a dry specialist discipline: with stories that arouse curiosity and open up opportunities. Not only experienced risk managers are addressed here: Everyone is invited to question familiar ways of doing things.

Five mistakes that we can no longer ignore

A highlight at this year’s Risk-!n conference was the pointed dialog between the risk manager of a large Swiss hospital group and a professor from the University of Lucerne. With clear words and a twinkle in their eyes, they presented the five biggest mistakes that are slowing down risk management today:

• Risks are assessed as foreseeable
• Qualitative analyses are confused with supposed objectivity
• It is assumed that people behave rationally
• Risk analyses are considered “technology-free”
• Risk management and decision-making are separated from each other

Tried and tested – but still risky?

The experts criticized the fact that methods often only survive because of their feel-good factor and ease of sale, rarely because of their actual effectiveness. There is often a gap between scientific findings and everyday business life that stretches back decades. Consultants offer tools that do not leave the client’s comfort zone, but that is precisely where further development begins.

Call to action

The conclusion of the conference is uncompromising: the future of risk management requires courage to let go of old habits and make consistent use of scientific findings. Those who cling to existing structures not only miss out on opportunities, but also jeopardize the innovative strength of their own company. The younger generation in particular is seen as the driving force behind this change and is prepared to take on responsibility.

Insurance companies shape the future

Insurance is more than just a profession, it has the power to change the world and make the future a safer place. Let’s leave the comfort zone behind and take risk management to the next level.

Binci Heeb

Subscribe to the “Paul the Insurer” newsletter here.

Read also: Paul the Insurer 24: Mission Risk Management

In Switzerland, turning 55 often means the end of a career. Thebrokernews already reported on this on November 18, 2025. Those who have led, built and mastered crises for a long time are suddenly sidelined, not because of a lack of performance, but because of high wage costs. While we are relying on a massive loss of expertise here, another country is showing how older people can be digitally integrated rather than discarded with the help of artificial intelligence.

In China, the government is launching a nationwide initiative to systematically introduce older people to artificial intelligence. Retired people are learning how to use AI-supported applications in senior citizens’ clubs: They edit photos, create videos or use AI assistants to organize their everyday lives. For many, this is not just about practical support, but also about social participation, mental activity and self-efficacy. China is pursuing a clear plan: by 2030, artificial intelligence should be an integral part of social life, even in places where in Europe there is usually only talk of “digital backwardness”.

China is thus showing a perspective that has hardly been considered in Europe to date: Age and technology are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, AI can give older people access to new tasks and roles. Instead of retreat, there is participation, instead of stagnation, there is development.

The Swiss way: Experienced, but sorted out

In Switzerland, the reality is often different. People in their mid-fifties who have built up companies, led teams and overcome crises are suddenly sidelined. Not because they are no longer capable of performing, but because they are considered a “cost risk” in statistics. Those with experience, networks and loyalty are increasingly becoming a problem, from strategic asset to Excel line. In corporations, banks and consultancies, it is not the function that is being replaced, but the expensive person. The loss of knowledge, stability and mentoring does not appear in any balance sheet and yet remains noticeable.

The paradox is that Switzerland is ageing rapidly. By 2035, almost a third of the population will be over 65. At the same time, employers are complaining about a shortage of skilled workers. However, precisely those who would be competent, networked and employable are being forced out of the workforce, often 10 to 15 years before the normal retirement age. Anyone who loses their job in their mid-fifties runs a high risk of falling out of the system permanently.

How age and AI could complement each other

What works in China can also open up a new way of thinking in Switzerland: It is not a question of whether older employees can handle digital technology. Most of them have long been learning new tools, leading digital teams and contributing their experience to agile processes. The real question is: why are we not using this systematically?

Instead of layoffs, models that secure knowledge and experience while reducing costs would be conceivable. Generation tandems could combine an experienced specialist with reduced working hours with a younger employee. Knowledge would not be lost via PDFs, joint work would be the trump card. AI could take over routine tasks while experienced people contribute their strengths in coordination, crisis management, leadership and mentoring.

Just as China is giving older people access to the digital world through AI, Swiss companies could open up new roles for older people through AI: as knowledge anchors, trainers, project supervisors or digital mentors.

Age discrimination is not a marginal issue, but a risk

Forcing people over 55 out of work is about more than productivity. It’s about stability, corporate culture, knowledge management and the ability to provide guidance in crises. In a world that is becoming both more digital and more complex, the value of experience and not just efficiency is increasing.

Switzerland is facing a paradox: more and more older people want to and are able to work, but fewer and fewer are allowed to. We talk about innovation and digitalization, but ignore those who could build bridges between technology, experience and society.

The future does not just belong to the young and not just to technology, but to a combination of knowledge, experience and digital expertise. The narrative needs to change: Not “too old”, but “too valuable to be lost”.

Thebrokernews regularly organizes webinars so that older employees 55+ can also benefit from AI. If you are interested, please write to: binci.heeb@thebrokernews.ch.

Binci Heeb

Read also: From 55: retired – when experience no longer counts in Switzerland

With the appointment of Noel Hamill and Nils Thomas Lien, Simplifai expands its Management Board and focuses on growth, innovation and international expansion in the field of agentic AI for claims settlement until 2026.

Simplifai, a leading insurtech provider from Oslo, has appointed two experienced executives, Noel Hamill and Nils Thomas Lien, to its Board of Directors. With their global technology and investment expertise, the company is focusing on a future-oriented go-to-market strategy. CEO Artem Gonchakov sees the appointments as a decisive step towards strengthening governance and driving international expansion.

Noel Hamill: Market expansion and branding

Noel Hamill has over 20 years of experience in building and scaling technology-driven companies. Most recently, he led the international expansion as Global CMO at parcelLab. Hamill is an expert in SaaS, AI and brand development and will be responsible for the global positioning and strategic market expansion of Agentic AI for insurance claims at Simplifai.

Nils Thomas Lien: Governance and growth strategy

Investor and strategy expert Nils Thomas Lien will take on key tasks in the further development of Simplifai’s financial strategy and business development. With his experience in transformation, value-creating governance and capital development, he brings new impetus for sustainable corporate growth.

Restructured Management Board with industry leaders

Ronald Kasteel was previously appointed Chairman of the Board of Simplifai. The combination of his extensive market knowledge with Hamill’s and Lien’s commitment is ideal to make Simplifai the preferred provider of AI solutions for insurers. Artem Gonchakov, previously a member of the Management Board, will now focus fully on operational execution and customer success as CEO.

Simplifai: Paving the way for automated insurance claims

As a pioneer in Agentic AI, Simplifai is transforming full claims settlement through intelligent automation with human control and a strong growth strategy for 2026. The solutions are already being used in leading insurance companies in Europe and North America.

Private healthcare is increasingly becoming a cost factor for global families and companies. The new SIP Health Cost Index 2025 shows for the first time on a data basis the extent to which prices for high-quality medical care vary internationally and where private healthcare costs are particularly high or surprisingly moderate.

For the first time, the SIP Health Cost Index 2025 systematically analyzes the actual costs of private healthcare in 50 relevant countries not on the basis of public expenditure, but on the basis of real premiums from international private health insurers (IPMI). Three model individuals, seven insurers and comparable benefit plans form the basis for a realistic picture of the actual costs of high-quality medical care for expats, frequent travelers and wealthy families.

“Few healthcare excellence hubs offer global families the combination of quality and accessibility they need,” explains SIP CEO Kevin Buerchler.

The most expensive healthcare markets in the world

The USA leads the ranking with an average of USD 17,969 per year, followed by Hong Kong (USD 16,175) and Singapore (USD 14,231). However, the sharp rise in costs in emerging Asian markets is particularly noteworthy. China, Thailand and Taiwan are already among the top 12. While straightforward visits to the doctor often remain inexpensive, international private clinics are driving up the cost of sophisticated treatments.

Europe: High spread – Switzerland in midfield

Europe shows major differences: the United Kingdom (5), Greece (11) and Spain (14) are far ahead, partly due to insurance taxes. Switzerland ranks 15th and is moderate in a global comparison, despite its reputation as a high-cost country. This is due to the compulsory insurance system, which dampens international IPMI prices.

Regional highlights

• Middle East: The United Arab Emirates (10) is establishing itself as a premium medical center driven by investment, medical tourism and state-of-the-art clinics.
• Latin America: Brazil (7) surprises as the most expensive market in the region.
• Africa and Latin America as a whole: Many countries, including Morocco (the cheapest country at USD 6,251), Nigeria and South Africa, remain comparatively affordable.

Significance for individuals, companies and insurers

The SIP Health Cost Index serves as a strategic tool for globally mobile families, companies with expats and insurers. It provides orientation for location selection, cost planning and the design of international healthcare services, especially in a world in which high-quality care is increasingly becoming a question of access and financial resources.

Anyone who brokers cyber policies today must understand and quantify risks and accompany them throughout their entire life cycle: from the initial assessment to systemic control. This is precisely where Maxime Cartan, CEO of cyber intelligence specialist Citalid, sees the crucial role of insurers, brokers, and technology partners: they are becoming orchestrating players who bring together data, models, and prevention knowledge.

Thebrokernews talks to the winner of the Swiss InsurTech Hub Summit & Awards 2025 about how brokers are evolving from sellers to strategic entities that curate risk-based solutions, influence capital allocation, and build trust between companies and insurers. Because cyber is no longer a product category, but a dynamic risk class that needs to be managed continuously.

What do your collaborations with insurers, brokerage firms or technology partners look like? What role must intermediaries and brokers play in the shift towards data- and risk-oriented cyber policies?

We collaborate across the entire cyber insurance policy lifecycle, from initial screening to systemic risk steering:

1. Risk selection & awareness

With our fully automated, lightweight assessment, underwriting teams can quickly evaluate a company’s alignment with their risk appetite without any client interaction. It enables faster triage at scale and more efficient distribution pipelines.

2. Underwriting & renewal

At the deeper assessment stage, brokers and insurers can combine multiple signals (external and internal, cyber and financial, sourced from Citalid or other technology partners, …) to structure guarantees and pricing based on actual exposure, not generic maturity scores. This reduces uncertainty and improves both margin and client fit.

3. Prevention & risk management

For critical or complex clients, brokers and insurers can equip them with our full cyber risk management platform. CISOs and risk teams can then analyze their exposure in depth, run scenario simulations, and optimize both security investments and insurance coverage. This creates a true risk-reduction loop: the insured becomes more resilient, and the carrier’s exposure improves over time.

4. Portfolio resilience

At portfolio scale, we identify accumulation vectors, monitor threat evolution and concentration, and help carriers refine underwriting guidelines to stay aligned with risk appetite. This is essential in a world where threat actors evolve quickly, and where supply-chain and cloud dependencies create systemic vulnerabilities.

5. Cyber CAT simulations

We provide catastrophe modelling services at the portfolio level to simulate extreme but plausible events. This enables insurers and reinsurers to stress-test strategies, negotiate reinsurance, and challenge assumptions around capital management.

Ultimately, intermediaries remain essential. Their role is evolving from “selling policies” to curating risk-informed solutions supported by analytics, because this is what clients now demand. This is why we see more and more brokers either developing internal cyber quantification capabilities, or partnering with pure-players like Citalid to accelerate time-to-market and credibility.

Cyber risks are becoming increasingly relevant not only from a technological perspective, but also from a regulatory perspective (e.g. operational resilience, data protection). How do you integrate regulatory requirements into your solutions, and how do you build trust among companies and insurers?

Regulation is converging toward a single message: prove that you understand your first- and third-party cyber risks, both on a strategic and operational standpoints.

We help our clients meet the requirements of many frameworks such as: DORA, NIS2, GDPR, sector-specific resilience standards.

Trust comes from transparency: our models are explainable, consistent, and backed by both cyber and actuarial methodologies. We also undergo regular audits from clients and partners.

Your platform not only recommends risks, but also generates an “investment roadmap”, i.e. preventive measures, according to your website. How important is prevention in relation to pure damage or risk modelling, and how do you measure its effect?

Prevention is central, especially when speaking to decision-makers who understand financial impacts far better than technical metrics.

It’s not enough to tell a company “you have €20 million of cyber risk”. You must tell them:

• which actions reduce it,
• by how much,
• and with what financial ROI.

That’s why our investment roadmaps go beyond prevention. They map recommendations across the full spectrum of cyber exposure: prevention and identification, protection, detection, response, resilience and recovery, and even the optimization of insurance coverage.

Every recommendation in Citalid is tied to an expected loss reduction curve. In other words, customers see the financial effect of a mitigation before implementing it. This changes the budget discussion dramatically: instead of debating tools or compliance, executives allocate capital based on impact, efficiency and return on risk reduction.

What technological trends do you see today that will be crucial for cyber insurance and risk management in the next 2–3 years? Keywords could be: AI-driven automation, real-time threat intelligence, embedded insurance, etc.

I would say that, given what we see today, four trends are likely to be crucial in the upcoming years:

1. AI-driven automation of underwriting and exposure assessment

From submission triage to data ingestion and scenario modelling, AI will accelerate underwriting workflows and enable more flexible products, including parametric models. Automation is not about replacing people, it’s about freeing experts to focus on judgement, risk appetite, and capital allocation.

2. Real-time risk intelligence integrated with pricing

Cyber will move closer to a “live” insurance line: pricing and conditions informed in real-time by the evolving threat landscape, not static questionnaires. This will turn cyber insurers even more into true risk-reduction partners, because risk posture becomes a shared, continuously updated metric.

3. Embedded cyber insurance inside digital and cyber ecosystems

Security controls and insurance will be bundled into the tools companies already use, such as cloud platforms, cyber solutions, payment providers, IT services. Coverage and resilience may become native to the technology stack rather than a separate procurement cycle.

4. Probable coverage of risks generated by massive GenAI adoption in companies

Generative AI is creating new risk scenarios: model poisoning, misuse, hallucination-driven decisions, IP/data leakage, … which are adjacent to cyber and face similar modelling challenges. Insurers will have to cover AI-enabled incidents long before actuarial datasets exist. The players who can quantify these risks through expert knowledge, contextual intelligence and dynamic modelling will gain a decisive advantage.

In short, the winners will be those who combine automation with deep cyber intelligence, and who are willing to put skin in the game… aligning product economics with the real risk their clients face when things go wrong.

As a young company in a highly regulated and risk-sensitive area: What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome, e.g. in data acquisition, sales, scaling or vis-à-vis established market participants?

Entrepreneurship is the story of trying to overcome challenges… sometimes with more success than others, but always with resilience. A few come to mind (and this is by no means exhaustive):

• Trust building with CISOs first, then insurers — both require time, proof, and deep due diligence.
• Mindset shift in markets used to actuarial modelling on long historical datasets: introducing new ways of modelling new risks is hard, especially in soft market.
• Data acquisition: cyber data is sensitive, multidimensional and hard to standardize. Our background in threat intelligence at the French cyber defense agency helped us build the right methodology and validation pipelines.
• Long sales cycles, particularly with large banking and insurance institutions.
• Scaling internationally while being disciplined with capital and resources.

Winning major deals and strategic partners helped accelerate the trajectory, but only after we earned it.

Do you work primarily with large companies, SMEs or directly with insurers? What is your ideal customer group, and why?

We operate across three segments:

• Large corporates directly, because their exposure is high, global, and they already understand the value of quantifying cyber risks. From the ones I can publicly name are industry global leaders in their respective segments such as Alstom, Lagardère, Fresenius…
• Insurers, reinsurers and brokers, who leverage our Portfolio product to steer underwriting, accumulation and systemic exposures.
• SMEs indirectly, via partners, insurers and brokers, to help overcome the awareness and distribution challenge in this segment.

On the corporate side of things, our ideal client is one who aligns cyber risk with broader financial decisions: insurance capacity, capital allocation, vendor dependency, operational resilience. We can usually tell very quickly by looking at who is in the room, whether it’s only the CISO, or whether the Risk Manager, business owners and CFOs are present and genuinely willing to understand the exposure and make proactive decisions.

This is why we often use the phrase: “Dare to know, be ready to act.” Because once the risk is framed at that level, quantification becomes a necessity, not a luxury.

What values drive your team at Citalid? How do you create an innovation- and growth-oriented corporate culture, especially when entering the international market?

One of our employees once said, “Citalid is a company where values aren’t written on a wall… you just feel them every day.” That stayed with me. If I had to name them, I would say:

• Trust: we never compromise on modelling quality or transparency. In an industry built on uncertainty, credibility is earned through rigour.
• Pragmatism: our job is to translate complex cyber signals into clear decisions, grounded in actionable financial metrics. We are allergic to buzzwords.
• Collective intelligence, my former field of research: it is often misused today but, under the right conditions and environment, we are smarter together. And I include employees but also clients, partners, insurers, regulators. Cyber risk is systemic; the way we tackle it must be collaborative.

I believe these values naturally shape our culture as we expand internationally. Innovation is not a department at Citalid: it’s a collective discipline, anchored in humility, curiosity and a strong sense of measurable impact.

Looking five years into the future, what is your vision for Citalid and the cyber insurance industry? What role will your company play in this?

Five years from now, I see cyber becoming as structured as natural catastrophes: with standardized exposure metrics, accepted accumulation models, benchmarks shared across the industry, and eventually capital markets instruments. Cyber will move from being an uncertain “technical topic” to a genuine asset class of risk.

Our ambition is for Citalid to be the global reference infrastructure for quantifying and managing cyber risk, for insurers, banks, and large enterprises. The missing layer that allows the market to track, price, transfer and steer cyber exposure with the same clarity as any financial asset.

When that layer exists, the impact is not only financial: better intelligence and better models lead to better decisions, which ultimately create a safer, more resilient digital economy.

Maxime Cartan Maxime Cartan is the co-founder and CEO of Citalid, a tech scale-up recognized as a European leader in Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ). He previously worked as a cyber threat intelligence specialist at ANSSI, France’s national cybersecurity agency. A graduate of both a top engineering school and a top business school in France, he holds certifications in offensive security (OSCP, CEH). Before joining ANSSI, Maxime was a partner at Hypermind, a startup focused on predictive geopolitical analytics.

The questions were asked by Binci Heeb.

Read also: Cyber risks as a financial investment: Citalid’s vision for the future of the insurance industry (part 1)

Maxime Cartan, CEO of Citalid, explains how cyber risk is becoming one of the most strategic and scalable opportunities in the insurance industry. His company transforms cyber threats into measurable financial metrics, enabling insurers, corporates and financial institutions to understand, assess and manage digital risk as an asset class.

Thebrokernews talks to the winner of the Swiss InsurTech Hub Summit & Awards 2025.

Maxime, please tell us briefly: How did Citalid come about, and what was your personal motivation for founding a company that quantifies cyber risks?

Back in 2017, my co-founder Alexandre Dieulangard and I were both working in cyber threat intelligence at ANSSI, the French cyber-defense authority. We were helping compromised critical organisations, both governmental and private.

And we kept running into the same wall with executives: every strategic decision ultimately comes down to economics, yet cyber risk was still discussed only in technical terms. The bridge between cybersecurity, business continuity, financial exposure and insurance simply didn’t exist. Organisations were essentially flying blind.

Alexandre and I have always been driven by entrepreneurship, with complementary backgrounds: his legal and geopolitical lens, and my engineering and mathematical approach to cyber. Building a concrete, silo-breaking solution felt like the natural next step. We wanted to answer one simple question: “What is the financial exposure of my company to cyber risk, and what should I do about it?”

Our motivation was clear: make cyber risk measurable, comparable and actionable for executives, insurers and financial institutions. Because once you can quantify it, you can finally manage it.

What exactly distinguishes your platform from traditional approaches to cyber insurance or cyber risk management? What technological levers do you use ? AI, threat intelligence, modelling?

Traditional approaches rely on external scoring or questionnaires. You’re forced to choose between speed and substance: long questionnaires capture internal posture and business context, but are time-consuming and painful; external scans, while fast and necessary, only reveal technical signals visible from the outside.

Meanwhile, cyber is a dynamically evolving risk. The limited historical loss data available becomes obsolete quickly, yet cyber remains one of the top risks for corporates and insurers. The industry needs a new approach that merges threat intelligence, business context, external and internal signals, and financial impact into a single coherent view… without compromising speed.

Citalid is now the leading cyber risk quantification technology in Europe because it addresses this gap through three pillars:

• Live cyber threat intelligence contextualized to specific sectors, geographies and offensive scenarios.
• Advanced modelling, mixing Bayesian networks, Monte-Carlo simulations and financial impact expertise.
• AI systems that automate analysis, correlate signals and detect risk propagation across IT systems and company portfolios.

The outcome is a platform that goes far beyond maturity assessments. It computes incident likelihood, expected losses, worst-case scenarios, and the ROI of security and insurance strategies. In short: we translate cyber into the language of risk, capital and insurance, making it measurable, comparable and decision-ready.

You won the Swiss InsurTech Hub Summit & Awards 2025 with the statement that cyber is the “most profitable and scalable sector of the next decade”. Can you explain this in more detail, and how do you see the role of insurers in this?

Yes… or at least it should be, if we collectively build the right foundations!

Cyber is the only insurance line where underlying exposure is growing faster than capacity, modelling capabilities or underwriting expertise. Digitalization, AI adoption, cloud concentration and hyper-connected supply chains are creating exponential exposure. And yet we still see huge coverage gaps: limited capacity for large corporates, and limited market penetration for the mid-market.

This combination creates a perfect storm of opportunity:

• Tremendous and accelerating demand
• Limited available capacity
• A critical need for better pricing, modelling and risk selection

Insurers who truly master cyber today will shape the market for the next decade. I’m convinced cyber will become a core strategic line of business, on par with property or specialty but far more scalable, because it underpins every modern organisation.

The role of insurers is pivotal: not just to provide capital, but to drive resilience, improve security incentives, and help the entire economy understand and price digital risk with the same clarity as any other financial exposure.

After winning the 2025 Awards what are your next growth steps? In which markets do you want to expand? Which partner ecosystems are important to you?

Three priorities come to mind for our next phase of growth.

1. Geographic expansion

We already serve clients in a dozen countries, and our focus areas are Switzerland, Germany, the UK and North America. These markets combine high cyber exposure, mature insurance ecosystems and strong regulatory drivers.

2. Deep integration within partner ecosystems

Brokers, insurers, reinsurers, MGAs and GRC underwriting platform vendors are central to our strategy. Our aim is to make cyber risk quantification natively available where underwriting, risk selection and capital decisions are made.

3. Scaling the product footprint.

We’re expanding our portfolio-level analytics for insurers and banks, especially around risk accumulation, systemic scenarios and the connection between cyber and credit risk.

Switzerland is a strategic hub for us: highly mature, innovation-friendly, and globally connected. It’s an ideal launchpad for international expansion.

In your opinion, what are the biggest obstacles that still prevent insurers from underwriting cyber risks in a data-driven way or assessing them accurately?

Cyber risk presents a combination of obstacles that makes it one of the biggest actuarial challenges insurance has ever faced.

A young risk with limited, inconsistent historical data

There is no century-long loss history or universally accepted taxonomy. Without common definitions, benchmarks and exposure metrics, insurers struggle to calibrate models and write policies.

Extremely high volatility

Attacker behaviour, tools and incentives evolve at digital speed, making past loss data a weak predictor of future events.

A human-driven, geopolitically sensitive threat

Cyber risk is shaped by malicious intent, geopolitical tensions, economic cycles and emerging technologies — all factors that introduce deep uncertainty.

A technically complex domain with scarce expertise

Understanding vulnerabilities, controls, architectures and behaviours requires expertise that is rare… and in a tense hiring market, extremely hard for insurers to recruit and retain.

All these factors lead to a lack of appropriate solutions on the market built to help insurers grow cyber insurance portfolios profitably and optimize underwriting processes based on a strong cyber expertise.

Citalid helps overcome these gaps with standardised exposure metrics, live attacker-centric intelligence, and automated modelling that integrates natively into underwriting and risk workflows, making cyber quantifiable, comparable and insurable at scale.

How do your corporate customers specifically experience the benefits of your solution? Do you have any examples of how risks or premiums have changed?

Our cyber risk quantification engine actually powers two complementary products:

• Citalid Portfolio — large-scale third-party risk quantification used for insurance underwriting, portfolio accumulation analysis, supply-chain risk management (TPRM), and even credit risk evaluation.
• Citalid Core — detailed first-party risk modelling that helps corporates identify their most relevant scenarios, quantify exposure, and run what-if simulations to build an optimal security and insurance roadmap.

Together, they create a virtuous risk-reduction loop: Portfolio users (insurers, brokers, financial institutions) are incentivized to co-sell Core to their most critical clients, because improving the insured’s risk posture directly reduces their own exposure. It’s a true win-win dynamic.

Corporate users of our Citalid Core product usually report three concrete benefits:

• Radical visibility: for the first time, executives understand which scenarios matter and the financial magnitude of each, in clear business language
• Optimized premiums and policy terms: some clients have reduced premiums by up to 20% or renegotiated conditions to accurately reflect their true risk, strengthening trust with their insurer
• Smarter investment decisions: instead of “buying everything,” they prioritize security actions with the highest marginal risk-reduction impact, benefiting every stakeholder involved

And on the insurer side, the value is symmetrical: one carrier used our models to reprice an entire portfolio after identifying clusters of companies with disproportionately high projected loss ratios… a pattern they simply couldn’t detect before.

Cyber insurance traditionally has the problem of having few historical claims records. How do you deal with this? How do you model scenarios that are rare but still possible?

Traditional actuarial modelling of risks requires large, stable historical datasets… which simply don’t exist in cyber. That’s why we rely on Bayesian networks, and just to be clear: no, I’m not talking about the yacht called “Bayesian” someone from the audience mentioned to me after the Awards!

In simple terms, a Bayesian network is a kind of explainable AI that combines expert a-priori knowledge witha-posteriori real-world observations.

On the one hand, we codify what cyber risk experts already know about attackers’ victimology, behaviours, techniques and defenders’ control effectiveness, likely business impacts and resilience. That becomes the prior: a structured, quantified understanding of how cyber incidents unfold, even before seeing any data.

On the other hand, every new incident, be it a ransomware campaign, a data leak, a supply-chain compromise, … provides new signals. Bayesian updating through inference allows the model to learn and recalibrate from every new data point, even if they are rare or incomplete.

This is crucial because cyber is the opposite of traditional actuarial domains: it’s adversarial, interconnected and fast-evolving. Waiting for decades of loss data is simply not an option.
Bayesian networks allow us to augment scarce datasets with contextual intelligence and cyber expertise, and then refine the model continuously as reality evolves.

The result is a genuinely new viewpoint for insurers: one that can model plausible but unseen scenarios, quantify tail events, and understand how risk propagates across technologies and supply chains. In other words, it gives actuaries a rigorous framework that finally matches the nature of the risk, which is why it resonates so strongly with carriers frustrated by the limitations of historical-only approaches.

Maxime Cartan is co-founder and CEO of Citalid, a technology scale-up recognized as the European leader in Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ). He previously worked as a cyber threat intelligence specialist at ANSSI, the French national cybersecurity authority. He is a graduate of a prestigious engineering school and a renowned business school in France and holds certifications in Offensive Security (OSCP, CEH). Before joining ANSSI, Maxime was a partner at Hypermind, a startup company specializing in predictive geopolitical analysis.

The questions were asked by Binci Heeb. The second part of the interview will be published on Monday, December 1.

Read also: Start-ups, winners and strong ideas: The InsurTech Awards 2025

One man, one vision and ten years of persuasion: how a “missionary” is redefining risk management and why his message is changing the world of insurance and business.

He compares himself not to a religious zealot, but to a missionary: patient, strategic and passionate. What began as an idea led to the founding of an association of over 3,000 risk managers in 23 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Today, he is Chairman of the International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations (IFRIMA) and has a provocative motto: Make Risk Management Great Again.

Why this motto works

Was risk management ever “great”? Perhaps not. But the slogan is an invitation to rethink the role of the risk manager. Away from the administrator and towards the designer. Away from being a cost factor and towards being a strategic partner. It draws attention to a topic that is becoming increasingly relevant in view of geopolitical, technological and climatic risks.

Risk managers as strategic drivers

The message is clear: risk managers are more than just insurance coordinators. They are enablers, forward thinkers and early warnings. They recognize threats and opportunities long before they are reflected in figures. They translate risks into strategic decisions and give them a voice in top management.

From silent observer to voice on the Board of Directors

Instead of just placing policies, as was often the case in the past, risk managers today take responsibility for future security. They combine risk, innovation and resilience. Their task is not only to minimize risks, but also to point out new paths and actively shape change.

The next ten years: spreading the teaching

The missionary does not preach in the desert. He speaks to people who are willing to listen and want to change. The job description will continue to develop over the next few years. It is not about dogma, but about trust, knowledge and influence.

Risk management is no longer a secondary function. It is a strategic core area of modern corporate management and those who shape it are the missionaries of a new era, according to Paul the Insurer.

Binci Heeb

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Read also: Paul the Insurer 23 :

Switzerland is experiencing a worrying shortage of medicines. What used to be the exception is becoming the norm, with consequences ranging from extra work in surgeries to hospital stays just to obtain medication.

According to the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (FONES) of November 25, 2025, the Reporting Office for Essential Medicinal Products for Human Use has been tasked since 2015 with quickly identifying supply bottlenecks or supply interruptions for essential medicinal products and taking appropriate measures if the industry is no longer able to manage the situation independently. The aim is to identify bottlenecks at an early stage. If there is also a compulsory stockpiling obligation for the reported medicinal product, a supply disruption can be bridged at short notice by releasing stock from this compulsory stockpile. Depending on the type of medicine, compulsory stocks can cover a market demand of two to four months.

From cough syrup to heart therapy

Pharmacies, hospitals and doctors are sounding the alarm: there is a widespread shortage of medicines. Everyday preparations such as painkillers, antibiotics, thyroid or blood pressure medication are affected, but increasingly also vital drugs for heart patients, cancer sufferers, the mentally ill or people with rare diseases. The shortages run through the entire supply chain and affect both outpatient and inpatient facilities.

When the next delivery date becomes a mystery

The question “When will this be available again?” is often impossible to answer. Some medicines have been out of stock for months. For others, only vague forecasts exist. Doctors and pharmacists have to improvise: alternative active ingredients, dosage adjustments, pre-registrations with wholesalers, a patchwork that costs a lot of time and makes the supply uncertain. It is particularly problematic for chronically ill patients whose therapy cannot simply be changed.

Drug storage in Switzerland

The situation is also difficult at a national level, because although Switzerland has an ordinance on the compulsory stockpiling of medicines (as of January 2024), many important medicines are missing. In contrast to basic foodstuffs, fuel or basic medical products, the provision of medicines is less strictly regulated. Compulsory stockpiling has been discussed politically in recent years, but has not been sufficiently reduced. Instead, the market was trusted to work for a long time. However, this mechanism is now noticeably reaching its limits.

Inpatient care as a last resort

What sounds like an extreme case is already happening: a patient with a precursor condition to a heart attack had to be admitted to hospital, even though the condition could have been medically treated on an outpatient basis. The reason: he needed nitroglycerin, a vital medication that was no longer available on an outpatient basis. Such cases show how a supply problem can turn into a medical risk.

A global problem with local consequences

The causes rarely lie in Switzerland itself. Many active ingredients are now only produced in a few countries, particularly in Asia. If a manufacturer fails to deliver, everything comes to a standstill worldwide. Pandemics, geopolitical tensions or economic priorities have a direct impact on Swiss warehouses. To save costs, warehousing is tightly calculated, which further increases vulnerability.

Purchase of medicines in neighboring countries

According to Swissmedic, you may take medicines from another country with you on your return journey, for example from Germany to Switzerland, if the quantity is intended for personal use. This typically corresponds to one month’s supply. When crossing the border, the medicine must be legally authorized or at least not prohibited. It must be clearly intended for personal use and not for resale.

However, it is not enough to simply buy a medicine in Germany and import it into Switzerland if the preparation is not authorized in Switzerland or if large quantities are involved. The online shipment of medicines abroad (e.g. orders from Germany to Switzerland) is strictly regulated: Private individuals may only import small quantities, and only if the quantities are clearly for their own use. Otherwise, customs can stop the shipment and there is a risk of administrative costs.

Trust needs security of supply

Switzerland is considered a country with a stable healthcare system. However, the current shortages raise a systemically relevant question: How do you protect security of supply in a globally dependent world of medicines? Initial calls for national stockpiles, greater diversification of supply chains and more transparency in trade are growing louder.

The drug crisis is more than just a logistical problem – it is a warning signal that shows how fragile even tried-and-tested systems can be.

Binci Heeb

Read also: Comparison of drug prices abroad: price difference increases, marked differences in generics and biosimilars