Best of Artemis, week ending January 11th 2026

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending January 11th 2026, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending January 11th 2026:

1. QBE Re sponsors $550m+ George Street Re casualty sidecar with Culpeper & Calidris support
   QBE Re has sponsored its first casualty reinsurance sidecar vehicle, securing over $550 million in fully collateralised quota share reinsurance through George Street Re, with the transaction backed by institutional investors Culpeper Capital Partners and Calidris Investment Partners.
2. Catastrophe bond market expected total return just 6% for 2026: Lane Financial
   2026 begins with a “historically” soft market for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector, consultancy Lane Financial LLC said in a new analysis of market pricing and return potential, as catastrophe bond multiples have declined resulting in a forecast for the year ahead of a total return of just 6% after expected losses.
3. Alternative capital hits $124bn. Consistent investor appetite to drive it higher still: Aon
   Alternative reinsurance capital, so that deployed through insurance-linked securities and related collateralized structures, reached a new high of $124 billion as of September 30th 2025, according to Aon and the broker expects the growth trend to persist as third-party investors show “consistent” appetite for returns from the sector.
4. Catastrophe bond market records that were broken in 2025
   Catastrophe bond market activity in 2025 resulted in a landmark issuance year for the sector, as adoption of the cat bond as a structure for reinsurance protection and alternative asset class accelerated and expanded. Beyond the headline figures, such as 2025 being the first year to see over $20 billion of cat bond issuance, numerous other records fell.
5. Reinsurance sidecar market hits $19.6bn. Property $17.9bn, casualty $1.7bn: Aon Securities
   The outstanding market for collateralized reinsurance sidecar structures has continued to grow at pace thanks to investor interest in the structures, with the latest estimate from Aon Securities putting invested capital in sidecar vehicles at a new high of $19.6 billion.
6. Guy Carpenter launches dedicated sidecar Center of Excellence, Hochberg to lead
   Guy Carpenter has announced the launch of a global Sidecar Center of Excellence (COE), which will be led by Ed Hochberg, Global Risk Solutions Leader.
7. California FAIR Plan says debut $750m cat bond “augments” robust reinsurance program
   The California FAIR Plan, having recently come to market to sponsor its debut wildfire catastrophe bond and secured $750 million of reinsurance from the Golden Bear Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) issuance, has now commented on the deal to say that the cat bond “augments” its robust reinsurance program arrangements.
8. ILS NYC 2026 conference – Our agenda and the final wave of expert speakers
   Last week we revealed the panel topics for the ILS NYC 2026 conference agenda and announced the final four expert speakers for the event. Tickets are selling fast, so we urge you to register soon to secure your place.
9. Ascot hires Edwards as Group Head Ceded Re, tasked to harmonize strategy with Leadline
   Ascot Group, the specialist global re/insurance underwriter, has appointed Ashleigh Edwards as Group Head of Ceded Reinsurance, where she will oversee the firm’s global ceded reinsurance strategy and harmonize it with Leadline Capital Partners, the company’s third-party capital management platform.
10. ILW rates fall 10%-20% at Jan renewals, growth to normalise in 2026: Howden Re
    As per reinsurance broker Howden Re, industry loss warranties (ILWs) are expected to return to more normalised growth in 2026, as the January 1st reinsurance renewals showed rates falling by 10% to 20%.

This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular among our readers over the last seven days. There were 38 new articles published in the last week.

To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis and never miss a story subscribe to our weekly email newsletter which is delivered every Wednesday.

View the current breakdown of the ILS market in our range of charts, allowing you to analyse cat bond issuance.

Check out the assets under management of the ILS fund market with our ILS investment manager directory.

Get listed in our MarketView directory of professionals.