Total catastrophe bond issuance hits $16.1bn YTD in 2026. 144A cat bonds over $15.8bn

The total for settled catastrophe bond issuance across Rule 144A deals and the private cat bond transactions we have analysed so far in 2026 has reached $16.1 billion as of today, while settled 144A cat bond issuance alone currently stands at over $15.8 billion.

Right now, based on latest sizes for the remaining cat bonds in the market pipeline for the first-half of this year, our up-to-date projection for H1 2026 total cat bond issuance is now around $16.96 billion, which would be the second biggest first-half ever for the cat bond market, slightly below the $17.56 billion we analysed and tracked in H1 2025.

There is still time for additional cat bonds to join the pipeline and settle before the end of June, but that time is now running short. For the first-half issuance record to be beaten we’d need to see meaningful upsizing of cat bonds already in the pipeline, a number of new deals, or one new larger cat bond appear.

Even if the first-half record for the dollar value of catastrophe bonds issued and settled in the period does not fall, this has still been an extremely busy first-half.

According to Artemis’ data, H1 2026 will break the record for the most deals to come to market and settle in the first six months of the year.

We have now analysed and tracked 71 settled catastrophe bond issuances so far in 2026 and there are already a further 7 in the pipeline still, so the projection is now for at least 78 as long as all deals settle by June 30th. H1 2025 set the previous record with 72 cat bonds issued and settled.

With the 71st of the settled catastrophe bonds settling today, the California Earthquake Authority’s new $425 million Sutter Re 2026-1 cat bond, this has taken the total for fully-settled issuance tracked by Artemis to just over $16.1 billion.

Breaking that down, it comprises almost $15.44 billion of Rule 144A catastrophe bonds focused on property catastrophe risks, another almost $385 million of 144A cat bonds focused on other lines of insurance and reinsurance business (specialty etc). plus just over $286 million of private cat bonds, or cat bond lites (analyse the issuance split in this chart).

The first-half of 2026 is already the second most active on-record after last year, with issuance so far more than $3.5 billion ahead of H1 2024 already.

The second-quarter of 2026 is now set to be only the second time a single quarter of catastrophe bond issuance has surpassed the $10 billion level, with our latest projection for Q2 2026 currently just over $10.3 billion, so only slightly behind last year’s Q2 2025 record of almost $10.5 billion.

Record months in February, March and May have helped to drive the strong issuance this year, which you can analyse in more detail in this interactive chart where you can include or exclude months in your analysis to compare year-on-year cat bond issuance trends (shown below) You can use this chart to analyse months, quarters, half-years and full-years, including or excluding months by clicking on their names.

On the outstanding catastrophe bond market size, while it has naturally grown with the strong issuance seen, its size has been reduced by a number of early redemptions of cat bonds having been made by residual market insurers in May and June, as well as significant scheduled maturities.

At one stage in the second-half of May, Artemis’ measure of the amount of catastrophe bond risk capital outstanding came very close to $70 billion, which would have been a new milestone for the industry.

But now, after a meaningful number of scheduled cat bond maturities and also some early redemptions, with more to come next week as well, the outstanding cat bond market by Artemis’ measure stands at almost $65.9 billion as of today.

That’s still up from $61.3 billion at the end of 2025 and $56.7 billion at June 30th last year, so strong growth remains evident. But it would have been more impressive still if it weren’t for the early redemptions that have occurred and are waiting to be made.

With time remaining in June now running down it seems unlikely we’ll see a Q2 or H1 catastrophe bond issuance record set in 2026, but it will come close.

This demonstrates the continued momentum in catastrophe bonds and is growing the overall asset class size at a rate which has been able to accommodate new investors.

While a number of the larger cat bond funds are now implementing soft-closes and the hurricane season is officially underway, the coming months will give the market a chance to reflect on another extremely busy period of activity, while preparing for the pipeline to open up again in the third-quarter of the year.

Analyse the catastrophe bond market using our charts and visualisations, which are kept up-to-date as every new transaction settles.

Download our free quarterly catastrophe bond market reports.

We track catastrophe bond and related ILS issuance data, the most prolific sponsors in the market, most active structuring and bookrunning banks and brokers, which risk modellers feature in cat bonds most frequently, plus much more.

Find all of our charts and data here, or via the Artemis Dashboard which provides a handy one-page view of cat bond market metrics.

All of these charts and visualisations are updated as soon as a new cat bond issuance is completed, or as older issuances mature.

All of our catastrophe bond market charts and visualisations are up-to-date and include data on new cat bond transactions as they settle.