Catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities news

Catastrophe bond issuance is expected to exceed $20 billion for the second year in a row in 2026, according to Aon Securities, with the maturity schedule seen as a “constructive” market feature that when added to coupon earnings means cash and capital levels for fund managers and investors have been particularly high this year.

Swiss Re is now aiming to secure as much as an upsized $345 million of broad North American peak peril retrocessional protection through its new Matterhorn Re Ltd. (Series 2026-3) catastrophe bond offering, while the price guidance for the notes has now been lowered twice, Artemis can report.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is aiming to price its fourth catastrophe bond sponsorship at the low-end of initial guidance, while still seeking $100 million of California wildfire protection from the 123 Lights Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) offering, Artemis understands.

Fermat Capital Management, the specialist catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager, has set up and launched a United States domiciled cat bond fund structure to support access to the asset class for US taxable investors and those that cannot invest offshore, Artemis can report.

Catastrophe bond market momentum accelerated through the second-quarter of 2026 and has broken many records, with more than $11.3 billion of new risk capital analysed and tracked in the period, making Q2 2026 the biggest single quarter in the history of the cat bond market and driving H1 to set another high bar, Artemis’ new […]

Even as spreads have compressed by roughly one-fifth and expected returns have fallen, Tom Wakefield, CEO of reinsurance broker Gallagher Re has said there is no sign of investor appetite retreating at this time.

Reinsurance capital reached a record high of $790 billion by the end of Q1 2026, but it was alternative or third-party reinsurance capital, so that deployed through insurance-linked securities and related collateralized structures, which was the sole driver of growth as it reached $141 billion, rising 4% from the end of the year, according to […]

The amount of non-life alternative reinsurance capital from catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities (ILS) grew by more than 5% just in the first-quarter of the year, with Gallagher Securities estimating $7 billion of incremental capital was added, to take non-life ILS capital outstanding to $142 billion at the end of Q1 2026.

Kin, the direct-to-consumer insurtech, has announced that its three reciprocal exchanges completed their reinsurance programmes at the June 1st 2026 renewal, securing more than $1.9 billion of coverage for natural catastrophe events, and 25% below what was paid at the 2025 renewal last year per dollar of risk protection.

The Victory Pioneer CAT Bond Fund has now surpassed the $2 billion in assets under management milestone, extending its AUM to $2.2 billion by June 30th 2026. The combined AUM across dedicated mutual and institutional insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds managed by the Pioneer Investments team has now grown to over $5.8 billion.