The London-headquartered professional services firm has appointed Achim Bauer to the helm of its Swiss insurance auditing and consulting business.

EY, the professional services firm, has appointed Achim Bauer as the new insurance leader for EY Financial Services Switzerland.

Based in Zurich, Bauer replaces Thomas Brotzer, who will now serve as tax leader, financial services. Bauer joined EY almost two years ago as partner and leader of management consulting, financial services. He previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in advisory services for banks and insurance companies.

“Since September 2013, he [Bauer] has successfully positioned us as the leading management advisory firm for the Swiss financial industry, providing systemic support to the Swiss financial sector as a business transformation partner,” said EY Financial Services Switzerland's leader, Marcel Stalder.

“I would also like to thank Thomas Brotzer for his fantastic contribution as leader of our insurance auditing and consultation business over the last three years, during which time he increased sales in this area by over 50 per cent.”

Bauer's recent role of leader, performance improvement, financial services, has been taken up by Adrian Widmer, who joined EY in Zurich from Accenture this month. As managing director at Accenture, Widmer held overall responsibility for the financial services business in Switzerland and Austria.

EY, which operates from 10 offices across Switzerland, added that digital expertise was key in light of the current challenges faced by the Swiss financial sector.

“His experience in the areas of technology and strategy consulting in particular is precisely what our clients need to tackle the new challenges in the financial sector. These increasingly come in the form of a ‘digital wave’, which is gradually taking over from the previously dominant ‘regulatory wave’, that is, regulatory issues,” said Stalder.