Cumulative catastrophe bonds & related ILS tracked by Artemis breaks $180bn milestone
Since the very first deal came to market almost three decades ago, the cumulative value of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) we’ve analysed and tracked has now surpassed $180 billion of issuance, according to our Artemis Deal Directory.
This is a new milestone for the catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and comes after the second consecutive year of record issuance and a busy start to 2025.
Record issuance of $16.4 billion from 95 transactions in 2023 was broken last year as 93 transactions brought a combined $17.7 billion of new risk capital to market. In fact, since 2017, cat bond and related ILS issuance has only once failed to breach $10 billion, in 2019 when it totalled $6.5 billion.
This impressive growth has seen the market expand considerably. Cumulative issuance only surpassed $100 billion in mid-2018, before jumping to more than $120 billion in 2020 and surpassing the $150 billion mark in 2023.
After a combined more than $34 billion of issuance in 2023 and 2024, cumulative issuance ended last year just shy of $180 billion but has now passed this milestone after more than $1 billion of settled issuance already in January 2025.
The chart above is one of many charts available as part of the Artemis data service, enabling analysis of the cat bond and ILS sector in greater detail. It shows just how strong market growth has been over the years, notably since 2017.
While much of the growth has come from repeat sponsors, it’s worth highlighting that over the past three years, Artemis’ data suggests that more than 40 new sponsors have entered the market.
So far this year, more than $1 billion of reinsurance or retrocession protection has been secured from the capital markets via cat bond issuances, and this also includes a new sponsor.
What’s more, the Artemis Deal Directory shows that there’s currently another $1.82 billion in the pipeline scheduled to complete before the end of February, and with the potential for more transactions to appear before the end of Q1, it looks set to be another busy opening quarter for the market.
As we’ve discussed previously and in our Q4 and full year 2024 catastrophe bond and related ILS market report, cat bond spreads have come down from the highs of 2023, but they clearly remain attractive to investors and also new and old sponsors as activity remains robust and keeps pushing the boundaries of the space.
The Artemis Deal Directory lists all catastrophe bond and related transactions completed since the market was formed 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.
All of our catastrophe bond market charts and visualisations are up-to-date and include data on new cat bond transactions as they settle.
