Cat bond & related ILS issuance nears annual record, now over $16.1bn

Catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) new issuance continues apace in 2021, with the total issued and tracked by Artemis so far this year now above $16.1 billion, meaning that a new annual issuance record is expected to be reached imminently.

Issuance of new catastrophe bonds and the other related insurance-linked securities (ILS) that we track here at Artemis has now surpassed $16.1 billion, with the recent completion of the new US wildfire catastrophe bond for utility Sempra Energy.

Catastrophe bond market activity has been particularly strong through 2021 so far, as ILS investor appetite for cat bond funds expanded and sponsors increasingly turn to the capital markets for reinsurance and retrocession.

That has helped issuance of pure 144A property catastrophe bonds reach almost $10 billion year-to-date.

In addition, cat bonds covering life, health or specialty lines have reached $470 million, private cat bonds and ILS have already surpassed last year’s total at nearly $740 million and mortgage ILS issuance is nearing $5 billion.

Analyse cat bond and ILS issuance data using our interactive charts.

It puts the catastrophe bond and related ILS market on-track to break most of its records in 2021, as it’s now clear we will see last year’s record total beaten and this year is already the second highest, both for all of the issuance we track in our Deal Directory as well as for pure property cat bonds.

Sources suggest that the fourth-quarter could see a flurry of new catastrophe bonds issued towards year-end, while the pipeline is also said to be strong for the start of 2022 as well.

The record set last year for pure 144A property catastrophe bonds stands at just over $11 billion, so we expect that total will also be beaten in 2021.

We’ll update you when records are set and you can stay tuned to Artemis for news of every catastrophe bond and related ILS transaction that comes to market, as well as details of other ILS structures including reinsurance sidecars.

You can view information on every catastrophe bond issued so far in 2021 and all prior years, totalling over 750 issues, in the Artemis Deal Directory.

Keep up-to-date with the make-up of the catastrophe bond and ILS market using the Artemis Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Dashboard, designed to be a simple and effective tool providing key data and statistics on every transaction (there are 750+) contained in our catastrophe bond & ILS Deal Directory.

Analyse the current breakdown of the market in our range of charts, allowing you to view key statistics on the cat bond market.