Catastrophe bond news

Today we have added four more expert speakers to the Artemis London 2026 website, our next catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market conference. Join us in London on September 1st for a full-day of in-depth discussion about the ILS market and valuable networking, register to attend the conference here.

Swisscanto Asset Management International S.A. has launched its first UCITS catastrophe bond fund under Luxembourg Law, the Swisscanto (LU) Bond Fund Cat Bonds, debuting with just over US $25 million in assets under management (AUM).

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has now updated its regulatory framework to make access to alternative reinsurance solutions simpler and easier for insurers in the country, with targeted changes that will support access to catastrophe bonds and other insurance-linked securities (ILS) for potential sponsors there.

Swiss Re has now priced its latest catastrophe bond sponsorship, securing the upsized target of $345 million of broad North American peak peril retrocessional protection through its new Matterhorn Re Ltd. (Series 2026-3) issuance, while the notes all priced at the lowest-ends of twice reduced guidance, Artemis has learned.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has successfully priced its fourth catastrophe bond sponsorship today and so secured the targeted $100 million of California wildfire protection from the 123 Lights Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) offering at the low-end of price guidance, Artemis has learned.

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market remains in a strong position, but expanding into international markets and less conventional perils will be critical for the market’s next stage of growth, according to executives at reinsurance broker Howden Re, who note that this expansion is vital both to unlock diversification benefits and to help close global protection […]

The first-half of 2026 saw another record period of issuance in the catastrophe bond market, as the use of cat bonds to source reinsurance protection continues to increase and the investor base appetite for new cat bond investment opportunities grows. Beyond the new issuance high-bar that was set, numerous other records fell in H1.

While the overall catastrophe bond market yield or coupon available to investors continued to rise through the month of June 2026, Plenum Investments noted that softening remains the dominant trend across new cat bond issuance.

We reported last month that AXA XL had secured $67.5 million of retrocessional protection from a new Galileo Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) catastrophe bond issuance. We’ve now learned this deal was particularly innovative and set some new market firsts, including becoming the first US terrorism cat bond ever.

According to the latest data from the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices, catastrophe bond fund strategies in the UCITS format averaged a 0.62% return for the month of June 2026 which beat last year, while the rolling-twelve month return rose slightly to 10.22% as a result of the stronger month.