Best of Artemis, week ending January 4th 2026

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending January 4th 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 4th 2026:

1. Catastrophe bond issuance breaks Q4 and full year records, market grows 24%: Report
   2025 is the year all headline catastrophe bond records fell, and the first time annual issuance exceeded $20 billion, rising by 45% year-on-year to $25.6 billion across full 144A and private transactions we analysed.
2. London Bridge 2 opens 14 cells in Q4 2025, channels $660m of new Lloyd’s capital
   London Bridge 2 PCC, the Lloyd’s of London insurance and reinsurance market’s insurance-linked securities structure, has been meaningfully used to channel new capital into the marketplace through the fourth-quarter of the year.
3. ILS NYC 2026 conference – Our fourth speaker announcement
   We announced the the fourth wave of speakers for our upcoming insurance-linked securities conference, with experts from Fermat Capital Management, Schroders Capital, Korra and MultiStrat added.
4. Stone Ridge’s Longtail Re delivers 20% annualised ROE since inception: CEO Stevens
   Longtail Re, the casualty reinsurance underwriting vehicle operated by asset manager Stone Ridge, has delivered a 20% annualised return-on-equity (ROE) since its inception in 2020, while also building a more than $6 billion asset portfolio, according to CEO Ross Stevens.
5. Property catastrophe rates fall 12% globally, in the US and APAC. 15% in Europe: Guy Carpenter
   At the January 1st 2026 reinsurance renewals property catastrophe rates were broadly softer around the globe as the weight of capital in the market depressed prices, while broker Guy Carpenter’s indices show that rates-on-line softened fastest in Europe.
6. Hedge funds adding pressure to ILS recruitment: Sykes, 20Twenty Search
   At a time where hedge funds are increasingly attracted to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, they are also adding significant pressure to recruitment within the space, which according to 20Twenty Search’s Jason Sykes, raises questions about its impact on talent and market stability.
7. January reinsurance renewal “accelerated softening” drives double-digit declines: Guy Carpenter
   The January 1st 2026 reinsurance renewals saw “accelerated softening” as excess capital in the market weighed on rates, while property catastrophe renewals saw double-digit declines with investor appetite for insurance-linked securities a contributing factor, according to broker Guy Carpenter.
8. Parametric solutions opening new pathways for renewable energy deployment: kWh Analytics CEO
   A number of specialty insurers are increasingly turning to parametric insurance solutions as an effective tool to help support clean energy deployment, particularly by stabilising revenues and improving access to project finance, according to Jason Kaminsky, CEO, kWh Analytics.
9. Greater market liquidity, a key challenge and opportunity for ILS in 2026: Swiss Re execs
   As the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector moves into 2026, one key challenge and opportunity that the market faces lies in the push for greater market liquidity, with senior executives from reinsurer Swiss Re noting that the space is still far from achieving robust daily pricing and dedicated liquidity providers.
10. Alternative capital forecast for 12%+ growth to $120bn in 2025: Guy Carpenter & AM Best
    Third-party capital deployed in reinsurance through insurance-linked securities and other alternative structures is now forecast to have grown over 12% during the course of 2025 to a record $120 billion, as broker Guy Carpenter and AM Best lift their projection from the 7% expansion anticipated earlier this year.

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 26 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.