Ortec Finance Warns Technology Could Amplify Polycrisis Shocks

A polycrisis occurs when geopolitical, economic and environmental stresses interact through non-linear feedback loops, producing cascading effects across markets rather than isolated shocks. Ortec Finance, a specialist in financial risk and return management, says the threat matters for institutional investors because tightly connected financial systems can transmit extreme tail-risk events rapidly. Digitalisation and technological advances could accelerate that transmission further, making historical crisis assumptions less reliable and increasing the need to test how portfolios behave when several severe risks materialise together.

Ortec Finance published its whitepaper, “Polycrisis: Why interacting risks require a broader scenario framework,” on Aug. 25, 2026, and the warning was reported on Sept. 4. The paper did not provide a single estimate of financial losses. It said stochastic scenarios based on realistic assumptions remain a useful starting point but cannot fully capture the deep uncertainty surrounding a polycrisis. Investors should therefore pair them with deterministic, narrative-based scenarios to identify cascading outcomes earlier, improve response planning and strengthen portfolio resilience.