Cat bonds & related ILS hit $12.5bn, property cat bonds surpass $11.5bn YTD

According to Artemis’ Deal Directory data, which tracks issuances of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities, overall issuance year-to-date has already reached $12.5 billion, while issuance of Rule 144A property cat bonds alone is now above $11.5 billion in 2023.

With another $400 million of notes from the North Carolina Farm Bureau’s Blue Ridge Re 2023-1 cat bond having settled this week, which have now been incorporated into Artemis’ range of interactive charts and visualisations on the catastrophe bond and related ILS market, we can say that 2023 is already officially the second most active year ever for the cat bond market.

Full-year 2021, when the record was set, saw $12.5 billion of property cat bonds issued and just under $14 billion of issuance across the deals we track, which are 144A property cat bonds, 144A catastrophe bonds that cover other lines of business (life, specialty etc), and private cat bonds with secondary transferability features.

2023 is well on-track to eclipse those figures and set a new annual issuance record, as we explained earlier this week.

In fact, our forecast for full-year issuance has risen since that article, thanks to Liberty Mutual coming back to market.

Including that new Mystic Re IV deal, our full-year 2023 projection based on all issuances closing at the sizes they are today (remember, it will likely rise as no doubt at least a handful will upsize), would be almost $14.9 billion for cat bonds and the related issuances, or an impressive almost $13.8 billion for 144A property cat bonds alone.

With some upsizing, there is every chance we eclipse $15 billion across the three types of deals and $14 billion for property catastrophe bonds only, setting a new higher bar and helping to expand the market even further this year.

You can analyse issuance by year and type of transaction using this chart (click here or on the image below for an interactive version where you can use the key to include, or exclude, types of deals):

Stay tuned to Artemis as we move through the final weeks of the year for details of each cat bond as it prices and settles, as well as news on any new cat bonds that come to light, which could raise these forecasts for year-end totals even higher.

The Artemis Deal Directory lists all catastrophe bond and related transactions completed since the market’s first deal in the late 1990’s. The directory also lists the cat bonds waiting to settle, which are highlighted in green at the top of the list.

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.