Cat bond news

Following the successful completion of its second catastrophe bond, the $50 million Black Kite Re Limited (Series 2025-1), Franz-Josef Hahn, CEO of reinsurer Peak Re, told us the issuance showcases the “tremendous potential” that insurance-linked-securities (ILS) solutions can play in narrowing protection gaps across Asia.

Two new restricted special purpose insurers (SPI) using the Merna Re name were registered in Bermuda in April. With these restricted SPI’s typically used as insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuers, especially for catastrophe bonds, the Merna Re name suggests these are likely for US primary insurance giant State Farm.

Global insured losses from natural catastrophes are on trend to hit USD 145 billion in 2025, continuing a steady 5%–7% annual growth trend seen in recent years, according to reinsurance giant Swiss Re.

We’ve published this article as an earlier piece on UCITS catastrophe bond fund performance was incorrect, there was an error in the data we received. Based on new data, the average return of UCITS cat bond funds tracked by the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices was flat at the first pricing in May, but […]

Robust catastrophe bond issuance in the first and now second quarter of 2025 seems to have taken some of the excess cash out of the market, leading to a little more firmness in pricing of late, K2 Advisors, the hedge fund focused investment management unit of Franklin Templeton has noted.

Signal Iduna Reinsurance Ltd. (SI Re), the Swiss based reinsurance company that invests in insurance-linked securities (ILS) for their diversification and return effects, has grown its ILS portfolio to EUR 84.5 million in 2024 and cited “pleasing returns” for the year.

We understand the target remains for up to $100 million of collateralized reinsurance limit from the new Liongate Re DAC catastrophe bond that will provide Japanese mutual Zenkyoren with aggregate earthquake reinsurance, while also providing a source of German parametric quake cover for entities of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending May 11th 2025, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

A recent report from UBS Group’s global wealth management arm has highlighted catastrophe bonds as a growing sustainable investment opportunity, emphasising their role in climate adaptation and financial protection against extreme weather events.

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market is gaining ground as a viable reinsurance alternative, helped by reduced risk premiums, increased confidence in models, lower transaction costs and still-growing investor interest, leading Gallagher Securities to say it anticipates continued growth of the sector.