For the reason that very first deal got here to market nearly three a long time in the past, the cumulative worth of disaster bonds and associated insurance-linked securities (ILS) we’ve analysed and tracked has now surpassed $180 billion of issuance, in response to our Artemis Deal Directory.
It is a new milestone for the disaster bond and associated insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and comes after the second consecutive 12 months of report issuance and a busy begin to 2025.
File issuance of $16.4 billion from 95 transactions in 2023 was damaged final 12 months as 93 transactions brought a combined $17.7 billion of new risk capital to market. In reality, since 2017, cat bond and associated ILS issuance has solely as soon as didn’t breach $10 billion, in 2019 when it totalled $6.5 billion.
This spectacular progress has seen the market broaden significantly. Cumulative issuance solely surpassed $100 billion in mid-2018, earlier than leaping to greater than $120 billion in 2020 and surpassing the $150 billion mark in 2023.
After a mixed greater than $34 billion of issuance in 2023 and 2024, cumulative issuance ended final 12 months simply shy of $180 billion however has now passed this milestone after more than $1 billion of settled issuance already in January 2025.
The chart above is certainly one of many charts available as part of the Artemis data service, enabling evaluation of the cat bond and ILS sector in larger element. It reveals simply how sturdy market progress has been through the years, notably since 2017.
Whereas a lot of the expansion has come from repeat sponsors, it’s price highlighting that over the previous three years, Artemis’ data suggests that more than 40 new sponsors have entered the market.
Up to now this 12 months, greater than $1 billion of reinsurance or retrocession safety has been secured from the capital markets by way of cat bond issuances, and this additionally features a new sponsor.
What’s extra, the Artemis Deal Directory reveals that there’s at present one other $1.82 billion in the pipeline scheduled to finish earlier than the tip of February, and with the potential for extra transactions to seem earlier than the tip of Q1, it appears set to be one other busy opening quarter for the market.
As we’ve discussed previously and in our Q4 and full year 2024 catastrophe bond and related ILS market report, cat bond spreads have come down from the highs of 2023, however they clearly stay engaging to traders and in addition new and previous sponsors as exercise stays strong and retains pushing the boundaries of the house.
The Artemis Deal Directory lists all disaster bond and associated transactions accomplished for the reason that market was fashioned within the late 1990’s. The listing additionally lists the cat bonds ready to settle, that are highlighted in inexperienced on the prime of the listing.
Download our free quarterly catastrophe bond market reports.
We observe catastrophe bond and related ILS issuance data, essentially the most prolific sponsors in the market, most energetic structuring and bookrunning banks and brokers, which risk modellers feature in cat bonds most frequently, plus a lot more.
Find all of our charts and data here, or by way of the Artemis Dashboard which offers a helpful one-page view of cat bond market metrics.
All of those charts and visualisations are up to date as quickly as a brand new cat bond issuance is accomplished, or as older issuances mature.
