The catastrophe bond market reached new heights in terms of issuance and activity levels in the second-quarter of 2026, with a number of important records being set as cat bond sponsors and investors continued to show growing commitment to the space.
Having published our new report that analyses second-quarter and first-half 2026 catastrophe bond issuance last week, we wanted to follow-up and highlight some of the new records that were set in Q2.
Last week we delved into the half-year records that were broken in the cat bond market in H1 2026, now we look at the quarter only and it is a similar story of benchmarks being raised and high-bars being reset higher still.
The second-quarter of 2026 was the busiest and biggest single quarter of activity in the catastrophe bond market’s history, with market participants working diligently to close a significant pipeline of deals in time for the mid-year reinsurance renewals.
As you’d expect there was a meaningful US and Florida focus, as numerous sponsors sought more catastrophe bond backed reinsurance for their towers, with many of these being repeat sponsors expanding the role of cat bonds within their reinsurance arrangements.
But there was also plenty of first-time sponsors entering the market as well, continuing the recent trend of an expansion of the cat bond sponsor base.
The records explained below are not an exhaustive list, there are likely to be others if you dive deeper into the data underpinning catastrophe bond issuance.
However, these are some of the highlights from the second-quarter of this year, as the catastrophe bond continues to cement itself as a core instrument for global reinsurance and risk transfer.
Below, we detail a number of the second-quarter 2026 cat bond market records set this year grouping them by type.
Catastrophe bond issuance records set in Q2 2026:
Which beats the previous record for total issuance across all types of cat bonds Artemis tracks of almost $10.5 billion set a year earlier in Q2 2025.
More records fell when analysing the constituent types of cat bonds issued in Q2 this year.
Rule 144A catastrophe bond issuance across reached just over $11.3 billion in Q2 2026, all of which were property cat bonds. That beat last year’s record of just over $10.45 billion.
Analyse total issuance using this chart and break the market down into its constituent transaction types here.
Catastrophe bond market size records set in Q2 2026:
While the cat bond market faced a significant maturity wall in the second-quarter of this year, issuance of new catastrophe bonds was meaningfully higher, helping to grow the outstanding market again.
Including all 144A cat bonds and the private cat bond deals we track in our extensive Artemis Deal Directory, the outstanding catastrophe bond market ended Q2 2026 at a record size of almost $65.6 billion.
Looking at just 144A and 144A eligible cat bonds, our end of Q1 2026 market size hit close to $65.3 billion, higher than the end of Q1 2026 figure and previous end-of-quarter high of almost $63.6 billion, indicating strong market growth despite the maturity wall that was reached in the second-quarter.
Market participants anticipate growth of the outstanding catastrophe bond market will continue and with the maturity wall smaller for the second-half of 2026 if issuance remains strong we could see a bigger jump in market size later this year.
Analyse the size of the catastrophe bond market over-time using this chart.
The biggest single month of catastrophe bond issuance ever:
During the second-quarter of 2026 we saw the biggest single month of issuance in the catastrophe bond market’s history.
May 2026 saw issuance of $6.93 billion of cat bonds this year, around $1 billion higher than the previous record set in May 2025 of almost $5.93 billion.
Analyse catastrophe bond issuance by month and year in this interactive chart.
Record number of first-time cat bond sponsors in Q2 2026:
Helping to ensure ongoing expansion of the catastrophe bond market, the number of new and first-time cat bond sponsors continues to increase.
In total, we recorded 9 new market entrants that sponsored their debut catastrophe bonds in the second-quarter of 2026.
That broker the previous record, which was 8 first-time sponsors seen in both of Q2 2025 and Q2 2007.
New sponsors help to keep issuance higher in the future and builds out the market’s size as well, because as we typically see most debut cat bond sponsors return and evolve into repeat sponsors of cat bonds in the future.
We track first time cat bond sponsors by the quarter and year of issuance and we also track all sponsors in the outstanding market on our leaderboard, by the amount of cat bonds they have in-force.
Record number of cat bond transactions issued in Q2 2026:
Underscoring just how busy the second-quarter of 2026 was in the catastrophe bond market, we tracked and analysed 48 transactions during the three month period.
The previous record was just 38 deals tracked by Artemis a year earlier in Q2 2025, signalling a meaningful increase in activity this year.
In addition, May 2026 saw 20 new cat bonds settle to become the most active month in number of deal terms on record, which beat the previous record of 19 cat bond deals from May 2025.
Summing up record Q2 2026 catastrophe bond market activity:
All of these records being broken serves to highlight the incredible activity levels seen in the catastrophe bond market this year and bode well for future issuance.
Market participants, from service providers to investors, have clearly show the ability to structure, analyse and clear a growing number of cat bond deals, while managing a busy pipeline effectively to deliver value and all-important reinsurance capital risk transfer to the sponsoring community of insurers and reinsurers.
As we move through the rest of this year we will keep you updated on all catastrophe bond and related ILS transaction issuance, and we’ll report on the evolving trends in the cat bond, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralized reinsurance market.
Download your copy of the new Q2 and H1 2026 Artemis cat bond market report here.
We will keep you updated on all catastrophe bond and related ILS transaction issuance as we move through 2026, and we’ll report on the evolving trends in the cat bond, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralized reinsurance market.
For full details of second-quarter 2026 cat bond and related ILS issuance and a review of H1, including a breakdown of deal flow by factors such as perils, triggers, expected loss, and pricing, as well as analysis of the issuance trends seen by month and year.
Download your free copy of Artemis’ Q2 and H1 2026 Cat Bond & ILS Market Report here.
For copies of all our catastrophe bond market reports, visit our archive page and download them all.
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