Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) cat bond listings rise 7% on strong H1 issuance

The Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) maintained its dominant position in providing a venue for the listing of catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities (ILS) in the first-half of 2024, with the total value of all ILS securities listed on the exchange rising further to $59.74 billion at the end of the period.

While catastrophe bond issuance was on-record pace through the first-half of 2024, as our latest quarterly market report explained, there were also significant maturities to deal with as well.

For the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) this meant a lot of activity for its staff over the period, in delisting maturing catastrophe bond notes and programs, while listing new ones.

Thanks to the record levels of cat bond market issuance activity witnessed through the first-half of 2024, the Bermuda Stock Exchange’s listings of property catastrophe bonds grew by almost 7% in US dollar terms during the period.

Across the broader cat bond and ILS market offering, so including other perils from terrorism risks, to financial guaranty, as well as some other listed structures, the BSX saw its listings grow by 6%, in dollar terms.

By the end of June 2024, the BSX’s listings of property catastrophe bonds had reached almost $42.7 billion, while its listings including some other ILS perils and structures were at $43.4 billion.

In a cat bond market that Artemis currently sizes at $47.6 billion, including private cat bonds which the BSX also incorporates into its figures, it means a very high around 90% or slightly more of the global catastrophe bond market’s issuance is listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).

In terms of the number of securities listed on the BSX, ILS listings including programs in total fell from 849 at the end of 2023, to 815 by the end of June 2024.

But this decline was all in mortgage insurance-linked notes, a subset of the ILS market that has shrunk over the last year or so as a number of issuers have redeemed older transactions.

Listings of cat bond note securities rose from 302 to 306 after the first-half, while perhaps more importantly listings of cat bond programs rose slightly faster from 108 to 116 during that period.

This incremental growth in catastrophe bond program structures is an important indicator of the future potential for the BSX to continue expanding its listings in the ILS space.

Overall, the BSX counted catastrophe bond and other insurance-linked securities (ILS) listings amounting to $59.74 billion as of the end of June 2024, up from $59.15 billion at the end of December 2023.

The overall growth figure has been affected by redemptions of mortgage insurance-linked notes, but the most important signs of a healthy cat bond and ILS market are in the roughly 7% growth in cat bond listings and still increasing number of cat bond program issuers housed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).

For the BSX, its continued success in the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) space is testament to the level of service it provides to sponsors, issuers and other market participants, which have helped it continue to dominate the ILS sector as a listing venue.

Find details of most catastrophe bonds listed on the BSX in the Artemis Deal Directory.

Find information on many of the reinsurance sidecars that have their notes listed on the BSX in our collateralized reinsurance sidecar directory.

Find details on every mortgage insurance-linked notes issuance here.