Catastrophe bond news

Specialised reinsurance broker Willis Re has identified increased activity in private insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds, and industry loss warranties (ILWs) as notable trends within the ILS market during 2025.

2025 was another very successful year for catastrophe bond investors, who benefited from the strong performance of the asset class and the market dynamics witnessed suggest that the cat bond market is likely to continue growing, Florian Steiger, CEO of Icosa Investments AG has said.

Groupama’s sponsorship of its latest catastrophe bond, the €120 million Quercus II Re DAC issuance, demonstrates the firm’s capacity for innovation and highlights the importance of partnerships across the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space, according to Pierre Lacoste, Reinsurance Director of Groupama Group.

Integral ILS Ltd., an independent alternative investment manager focused on natural catastrophe insurance and reinsurance investments, has entered the catastrophe bond market seeking $200 million in US named storm retrocession from a Windrose Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) issuance, Artemis can report.

With the Indian state of Kerala remaining highly vulnerable to numerous types of natural disaster events, the state has reportedly asked the countries Union government to consider issuing catastrophe bonds in order to help provide protection against disaster-linked financial losses, according to a report from The Hindu.

Swiss Re has made an early redemption of the loss exposed Class A notes from its Matterhorn Re Ltd. (Series 2020-2) catastrophe bond issuance after benefiting from roughly $33.1 million in recoveries under their retrocessional protection, leaving the remaining $46.9 million of principal set to be returned to investors, Artemis understands.

The Ambassador catastrophe bond focused US mutual fund strategy operated by Embassy Asset Management has grown its total insurance-linked securities (ILS) assets under management to more than US $700 million or the first time, while the strategy delivered an 11.61% return for the last year of record.

The Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) further strengthened its position as the dominant venue for listings of catastrophe bonds and other insurance-linked securities in 2025, growing its share of the market in the process to end the year with a stunning $65.2 billion of insurance-linked listings on the exchange.

The catastrophe bond market experienced its third consecutive year of double-digit returns in 2025, with perhaps the most widely used benchmark, the Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Performance Index, delivering a total return of 11.40% for the period.

The retrocession renewals for January 1st 2026 were finalised much later than usual. But, with ample capacity available from traditional and ILS markets, buyers achieved price reductions and also re-introduced more frequency protection to their coverage, according to Gallagher Re.