reinsurance

UK government backed mutual terrorism reinsurance firm Pool Re has secured another increase in size to its retrocession program, lifting it by 15% from £2.4 billion to £2.75 billion at the latest renewal, while our sources suggest that a new vintage of the Baltic terrorism catastrophe bond is expected to add to this.

SageSure is back in the catastrophe bond market right on the heels of closing its largest issuance yet, with a new Gateway Re Ltd. (Series 2025-2) deal that seeks $125 million or more in named storm reinsurance to initially protect the Aurous and Elevate reciprocal exchanges, Artemis has learned.

Japan Post Insurance is considering making an investment of as much as $2 billion into a new reinsurance sidecar-like co-investment vehicle to be sponsored by U.S. life, retirement and annuities insurance and reinsurance company, Global Atlantic Financial Group.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending March 2nd 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.

For the first time since we’ve been tracking the catastrophe bond marketplace, Artemis’ measure for the size of the market, based on our estimate of catastrophe bond risk capital outstanding, has surpassed the $50 billion mark, as 2025 issuance continues to outpace the heavy maturity schedule.

Coastal property managing general underwriter SageSure’s CEO said it is “proud to support” its carrier partners, as its largest catastrophe bond transaction yet closes, the $520 million Gateway Re Ltd. (Series 2025-1), while executives also expressed gratitude to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) community for supporting the Gateway Re series.

Artemis has learned that direct-to-consumer insurtech company, Kin Insurance, has now successfully priced its latest catastrophe bond transaction, securing the 50% upsized target of $300 million of Florida named storm reinsurance protection from the Hestia Re Ltd. (Series 2025-1) issuance, which marks the company’s largest cat bond yet.

Aspen Capital Markets, the third-party, ILS and alternative reinsurance capital management unit of global re/insurer Aspen, has continued to expand its business throughout 2024, with assets under management reaching a new high of $2.2 billion and fee income earned for the year rising by 25%.

The North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA) has now secured its largest catastrophe bond yet, as the Cape Lookout Re Ltd. (Series 2025-1) issuance has been priced at the almost doubled $600 million issuance size, while pricing of the notes was finalised just below the mid-point of initial guidance, Artemis can report.

With TD Insurance (TDI) successfully sponsoring the first catastrophe bond covering only perils in Canada this year, the debut issuance from the organisation could potentially make cat bonds more attractive to other Canadian insurers in the future, according to analysts at Morningstar DBRS.