Catastrophe bond fund news

The overall yield of the catastrophe bond market has begun its seasonal decline over the last month as the typical hurricane season spread tightening regime set in, according to cat bond fund manager Plenum Investments.

The catastrophe bond market delivered a total return of 1.47% in July 2025, as seasonality kicked in and drove what we’re told was one of the best performances for that month of any year in the history of the benchmark Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Index.

Speaking during a second-quarter earnings call today, Kevin O’Donnell, CEO of Bermuda based underwriter and third-party reinsurance capital manager RenaissanceRe, said that he doesn’t see issues with capital wanting to enter the sector regardless of return.

Catastrophe bond funds structured in the UCITS format continued to rapidly expand through the second-quarter of 2025, with the sector as a whole having grown its combined cat bond assets under management by an impressive 24%, or over $3.31 billion, just since the end of last year.

RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda headquartered reinsurance company and third-party capital manager, has reported that its Capital Partners business generated record fee income from its range of joint ventures and insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds in the second-quarter of 2025, while profits shared with investors in the vehicles also rose to one of its highest levels ever.

Over time, the returns per-unit of risk from catastrophe bonds have, on average, declined faster for industry-index deals, resulting in a divergence between the at-issuance spreads delivered by cat bonds featuring industry-loss triggers versus the rest of the market, data from Man Group shows.

The Ambassador US mutual catastrophe bond fund strategy operated by Embassy Asset Management grew its total insurance-linked securities (ILS) assets under management by approximately 23% in the last quarter of record. Its cat bond holdings have continued to grow taking the fund’s AUM to $537 million by the end of June.

The Pioneer Investments mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) team has now successfully grown its dedicated catastrophe bond fund strategy past the billion dollar mark, with the recently renamed Victory Pioneer CAT Bond Fund reaching $1.13 billion in assets under management this month.

The overall yield of the catastrophe bond market increased to above the 11% mark in June 2025, the first time it has surpassed that level since October 2024, but with the hurricane season now underway the expectation is for the discount margin to decrease, according to cat bond fund manager Plenum Investments.

The cohort of lower-risk catastrophe bond funds in the UCITS format are still leading the way year-to-date in 2025, with an average 3.06% return to June 27th. But the higher-risk cohort of cat bond funds are now narrowing the gap, as impacts from wildfire and aggregate losses and mark-to-market adjustments move further into the past.