California FAIR Plan raises target again to $400m for second Golden Bear Re wildfire cat bond

The California FAIR Plan Association has raised the target size of its second catastrophe bond sponsorship again, with now $400 million of capital markets backed wildfire reinsurance protection sought from the Golden Bear Re Ltd. (Series 2026-2) cat bond issuance, Artemis understands.

The California FAIR Plan Association came back to the catastrophe bond market for its second sponsorship earlier this month, initially looking to secure $200 million of multi-year wildfire reinsurance protection from the capital markets.

That move came on the heels of FAIR Plan’s debut catastrophe bond that was issued in December 2025, when it secured the largest pure wildfire risk cat bond ever, the $750 million Golden Bear Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1).

The FAIR Plan demonstrated its appetite to secure more multi-year protection and showed that it finds cat bond market pricing attractive, as we reported yesterday that the Golden Bear Re 2026-2 cat bond was being targeted at a 75% upsized $350 million, while the price guidance had been lowered and narrowed towards the bottom of the initial range.

Now, we’re told the target size has been increased for a second time, with the California FAIR Plan now aiming to close this new Golden Bear Re 2026-2 cat bond at double the initial target size, with a $400 million issuance now anticipated to be the outcome.

We’re also told that the price guidance has been reduced again, as the CA FAIR Plan targets stronger execution still for its second catastrophe bond sponsorship.

With these second updates in mind, Golden Bear Re Ltd. is now targeting issuance of a single $400 million tranche of Series 2026-2 Class A notes, that will protect the California FAIR Plan against California wildfire losses on an indemnity trigger and per-occurrence basis across a three year term to the end of February 2029.

The Series 2026-2 Class A notes come with an initial expected loss of 2.65% and were first offered to investors with spread price guidance in a range from 9.75% to 10.75%. As we reported, that price guidance fell first to between 9.75% and 10%, but has now been updated again to a lower still range of 9.5% to 9.75%, according to our sources.

As we explained, the previous issuance of $750 million Golden Bear Re 2026-1 notes had an initial expected loss of 2.24% and priced to pay investors an initial risk interest spread of 9.75%, so paid investors a multiple-at-market of 4.35 times the EL.

Based on the second update to price guidance, these new 2026-2 notes could now come with a multiple-at-market of between 3.59 and 3.68 times the initial expected loss.

Which is both a clear reflection of the tight spread environment in the market, but also heightened cat bond fund and investor confidence and knowledge of the CA FAIR Plan, as it nears completion of its second cat bond sponsorship.

This is the first pure wildfire risk deal of 2026, following on from 2025 when we saw the most wildfire transactions we’d ever recorded in our Deal Directory.

Wildfire risk remains a relatively small component of the cat bond market in its purest form, of cat bonds solely exposed to the peril Artemis data shows, but this second issuance for the FAIR Plan will grow that further and as a result the wildfire peril continues to offer more diversification opportunities for investors and cat bond funds.

You can read all about this new Golden Bear Re Ltd. (Series 2026-2) catastrophe bond and view details on almost every other cat bond ever issued in our extensive Artemis Deal Directory.