Catastrophe bond market to hit second $20bn+ issuance year at fastest pace yet

As the catastrophe bond market pipeline builds for the fourth-quarter of 2026, we are already tracking what will be only the second ever year where issuance of 144A catastrophe bonds and private cat bond deals has exceeded the $20 billion level, while currently the market remains on a faster issuance pace than 2025.

Catastrophe bond market participants had entered 2026 with a view that the $20 billion of issuance milestone would be seen again this year.

Following on from the landmark record year of cat bond issuance in 2025, when we tracked over $25.6 billion of issuance, across full Rule 144A and private cat bond deals (see our quarterly cat bond market reports for all the details), the expectation has always been that the market would continue to see a $20 billion plus level of issuance.

There are a number of reasons growth of the cat bond market persists and had always been expected to continue.

For one, the growing number of sponsors in the market and especially new or first time cat bond sponsors, shows that the adoption of cat bond-backed reinsurance continues to grow, which is a significant input and influence for higher issuance volumes. We track first-time cat bond sponsors by quarter and year in this chart.

In addition to the growing number of sponsors in the catastrophe bond market, the fact we’ve seen a prolonged period of market growth has meant that there are rising levels of maturities coming due, which delivers meaningful cash for cat bond fund managers to redeploy, another factor that continually fuels market expansion. We track upcoming catastrophe bond maturity volumes by quarter and month in these charts.

The cat bond investor base currently has plenty of cash to put to work after a summer of strong coupon returns. As we reported recently, just the UCITS cat bond fund sector grew its combined assets by roughly $1 billion through the third-quarter of the year, a period when capital raising slows, but seasonal returns drive cash levels higher.

With UCITS just a segment of the market, it means cat bond coupon earnings may have accumulated more than $2 billion of cash for investors to deploy during Q3 alone.

Add to that the fact the investor base continues to expand, while multi-strats, hedge funds and other fixed income managers continue to include cat bonds as an investable asset class in their fund prospectuses, all means the market is well-primed.

All of these factors position the market for another very strong year, with the full-year record still in sight, although still requiring one of the busiest final quarters of the year ever so records are not assured.

As things stand today in 2026, we’ve tracked over $18.92 billion of settled cat bond issuance, across 144A cat bonds and private deals, while the building market pipeline is now targeting issuance of a further $1.3 billion of cat bond notes in the coming weeks.

Which means, based on Artemis’ data, if all that planned pipeline issuance settles as currently targeted, issuance looks set to surpass the $20 billion mark and hit approximately $20.22 billion around the week of November 9th, across 144A cat bonds, the private cat bonds we’ve tracked and the pipeline we have visibility of today.

In terms of how that compares to the pace of issuance in 2025, impressively even against the high-bar last year set 2026 is still running at a faster pace.

Last year, the cat bond market surpassed the $20 billion level of issuance for the first time ever on November 25th 2025 with two deals settling, which took volumes over that milestone both for 144A cat bonds alone and for 144A plus private cat bonds.

So, with the latest information we have projecting that $20 billion will be reached in the week of November 9th, the potentially record-setting pace continues.

Currently, we project Rule 144A cat bond issuance on its own will reach $19.82 billion during the week of November 9th, so there is every chance that the 144A cat bond market also hits $20 billion of issuance earlier in 2026, than it did during the record year seen in 2025.

Breaking the market down to Rule 144A property catastrophe bond issuance only, the $20 billion milestone was only reached on December 16th in 2025.

This year, we project that 144A property cat bond issuance may be at or around $19.4 billion the week of November 9th, so this record may also fall in 2026.

There is still a way to go before we can start looking at full-year record potential for 2026.

As we explained in our latest quarterly cat bond market report, we need to see $6.7 billion of new cat bond issuance to set an annual record this year.

In fact, for 2026 to see record total catastrophe bond issuance, we will need the fourth-quarter to see the second highest level of issuance ever, after last year’s $7 billion.

But, sources suggest that is possible, although by no means guaranteed at this stage.

It’s worth noting though, that pipeline deals are already upsizing and pricing down, with conditions in the cat bond market extremely conducive at this time for sponsors seeking attractive deal execution and well-priced reinsurance from the capital markets.

So all the necessary factors are there and ready to support a record year. Now it simply comes down to deal-flow and whether enough sponsors recognise the current positive catastrophe bond market opportunity.

Analyse the catastrophe bond market using our charts and visualisations, which are kept up-to-date as every new transaction settles.

Download our free quarterly catastrophe bond market reports.

We track catastrophe bond and related ILS issuance data, the most prolific sponsors in the market, most active structuring and bookrunning banks and brokers, which risk modellers feature in cat bonds most frequently, plus much more.

Find all of our charts and data here, or via the Artemis Dashboard which provides a handy one-page view of cat bond market metrics.

All of these charts and visualisations are updated as soon as a new cat bond issuance is completed, or as older issuances mature.

All of our catastrophe bond market charts and visualisations are up-to-date and include data on new cat bond transactions as they settle.