The biggest quarter of catastrophe bond issuance ever: Report

The catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) market saw $7.1 billion of new issuance in the second-quarter of 2023, becoming the biggest single quarter of issuance in the market’s history, Artemis’ latest quarterly report shows.

The Artemis Q2 2023 Catastrophe Bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) Market Report, available to download now, examines the cat bond and related ILS risk capital issued in the quarter.

Our new report examines a period in which issuance was particularly strong, setting a new quarterly record for the cat bond and related ILS market.

The $7.1 billion of catastrophe bond and related ILS issuance in Q2 2023, being the largest quarter on-record, ensured that H1 issuance has also set a new record at over $10.3 billion, the largest half-year ever.

This quarter’s $7.1 billion of issuance came from 36 transactions comprised of 48 tranches of notes, the large majority of which were traditional 144a property cat bonds, with just a few cat bond lite deals placed.

In fact, it was a record quarter for property cat bond issuance, which, alongside metrics for half-year issuance – another record – is examined in more detail in the Artemis Q2 2023 cat bond and related ILS market report.

While most of the deals brought to market came from repeat sponsors, Conduit Re, Spinnaker Insurance Company, Korean Re, and the New Zealand Earthquake Commission all entered the cat bond space for the first time in Q2 2023.

This report also dissects the pricing of cat bond notes issued in the quarter, revealing that the average multiple (price coupon divided by expected loss) remains high despite a dip from the previous quarter.

Another feature of Q2 2023 issuance is the substantial upsizing of deals while marketing, as sponsors took advantage of strong appetite from the investor base, flush with new inflows of capital, in order to secure their reinsurance and retrocession needs.

All of our catastrophe bond market charts and visualisations are up-to-date, so include this latest quarter of issuance data.

We will keep you updated on all catastrophe bond and related ILS transaction issuance as the second-half of 2023 progresses, and we’ll report on the evolving trends in the cat bond, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralised reinsurance market.

For full details of second-quarter 2023 cat bond and related ILS issuance, including a breakdown of deal flow by factors such as perils, triggers, expected loss, and pricing, as well as analysis of the issuance trends seen by month and year.

Download your free copy of Artemis’ Q2 2023 Cat Bond & ILS Market Report here.

For copies of all our catastrophe bond market reports, visit our archive page and download them all.