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Catastrophe bond market issuance activity continues apace in 2026 and now two months of the first-quarter may see new records set for the amount of limit that comes to market, while Q1 issuance overall is destined to be the second highest ever, according to Artemis’ Deal Directory data.

Catastrophe bond issuance is on track to make this first-quarter at least the second busiest start to any year on record, with Artemis’ Deal Directory data already projecting close to $5.86 billion of cat bond issuance for Q1 2026, only falling behind the total from last year at this stage.

With 2025 setting new records for catastrophe bond issuance, the market is expected to maintain its strong momentum as it heads into 2026 as a resilient and growing asset class with strong technical underpinnings, Etienne Schwartz, CIO Liquid Strategies at ILS investment manager Twelve Securis told Artemis.

Issuance of Rule 144A property catastrophe bonds in 2025 surpassed the $20 billion milestone today as the settlement of the largest wildfire cat bond ever seen, sponsored by the California FAIR Plan, has taken the total for the year-to-date to just over $20.7 billion, Artemis data shows.

With the settlement today of two new catastrophe bonds, the 144A marketplace for new cat bond issuance has now just reached the $20 billion milestone in 2025, while including private deals the total amount of settled issuance tracked by Artemis this year is now $20.62 billion.

With the pipeline of new 144A catastrophe bonds growing as new deals get launched, the market is now officially on track for the first $20 billion plus calendar year of issuance in 2025.

With the catastrophe bond market pipeline growing for the fourth-quarter, Artemis is on course to track its first $20 billion year of issuance in 2025, as our extensive and long-standing data set of Rule 144A and private cat bond transactions now has that milestone in sight.

Based on our extensive data on the catastrophe bond market it’s clear another record is coming into view. We have already tracked and listed 95 individual catastrophe bond issuances in the Artemis Deal Directory so far in 2025, which equals the full-year record set for number of deals issued and tracked by us in 2023.

Yesterday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enacted a rule as part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, which lifts the ban on general solicitation and marketing for investment funds and Rule 144A securities offerings. The change means that these once private offerings can now be broadly marketed as long […]

Back in April we wrote about the passing of a new set of laws which have the potential to impact the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities market by easing some of the current restrictions on securities advertising, marketing and issuance. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, was signed into law by President […]