Catastrophe Bond Issuance Hit a Record Pace During First Quarter

New issuance of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) began 2025 at a record pace, with $7.1 billion issued during the year's first quarter, according to a new report from Artemis. 

New catastrophe bond and ILS issuance during the first 3 months of this year was up $2.8 billion from the same period in 2024, the Q1 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report from Artemis said. 

The first quarter issuance builds on $17.7 billion of new catastrophe bond and ILS issuance in 2024, the Artemis report said. 

The bulk of the first quarter's new issuance—$6.3 billion—was in the form of traditional property catastrophe bonds, Artemis said. 

The new issuance to start the year came through a first-quarter record 34 transactions, which included 56 tranches of notes. Those issuers included both new and repeat sponsors, Artemis said, and represented a diverse mix of catastrophe and noncatastrophe risks across various regions of the world. 

The first quarter of 2025 also saw $4.4 billion in catastrophe bonds and ILS maturities, Artemis said, with the new issuance more than offsetting those maturities to bring outstanding catastrophe bond market volume to a new end-of-quarter record of $52.2 billion as March ended. 

The Artemis report said that perils covered by the first quarter deals included California wildfire and fire following earthquake, terrorism risk, Japan multiperil, international multiperil, US multiperil, cloud outage, UK flood, US named storm, North Carolina named storm, Florida named storm, southeast US named storm, financial guarantee risks, California earthquake, US earthquake, US property-catastrophe risks, medical benefit claim levels, worldwide peak perils, and Canada multiperil.