Catastrophe bond market issuance has already set a new record for the first-four months of the year in 2025, even with half the month of April still to run and billions more in issuance scheduled to settle before May, which has the potential to make this the busiest four-month stretch ever for the sector.
The stunning start to 2025 for the catastrophe bond market continues, with supply of new cat bonds continuing to accelerate.
Having already set a new record for first-quarter cat bond issuance, even with April only half way through the amount of risk capital issued in catastrophe bond format has already exceeded the record set a year ago for the first four months of the year.
Currently, we’ve analysed and tracked approaching $7.9 billion of new and settled cat bond issuance in the Artemis Deal Directory this year.
A further $100 million gets added to that total tomorrow, as the Zenkyoren sponsored Nakama Re 2025-1 issuance is scheduled to settle then, so the total will be approaching $8 billion at that stage.
But, even before the Zenkyoren deal settles, the nearly $7.9 billion of cat bonds already settled this year has broken the 2024 record of just over $7.7 billion settled through the end of April.
Analyse catastrophe bond issuance by month and year using our chart. You can deactivate months using the chart legend to easily compare any period of the year versus historical cat bond issuance.
2025 will be the third year in a row that the catastrophe bond market will set a new record for issuance settled by the end of April.
Last year, we recorded just over $7.7 billion in new catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance over the first-four months of 2024.
In 2025, we’re already ahead of that, approaching $7.9 billion and set to be nearly $8 billion tomorrow, but more impressively there is an extensive pipeline for the rest of April this year.
In fact, given the way the pipeline has been building and the fact cat bond issues tend to be upsized in 2025, there is a chance issuance for the first-four months of the year could approach or even surpass $10 billion, although there is some timing uncertainty and deals could fall into May.
Which, depending on whether settlement dates get pushed back for any deals, could also make this the busiest of any four-month stretch in the catastrophe bond market’s history.
But, either way, the new record already set for January to April catastrophe bond issuance in 2025 is significant and a further signal that the market is well on-track to set morte records for the first-half of the year, perhaps even the full-year (although there is some way to go on that).
Adding the almost $7.9 billion of catastrophe bond issuance settled so far this year to the currently $3.71 billion pipeline, gives us a total issuance figure once the current pipeline is closed of almost $11.6 billion.
It’s worth noting that the record set a year ago for cat bond issuance across the first-five months of the year stands at $11.72 billion, so there is almost certainly going to be a new record set for that period as well.
In fact, with the first-half issuance record standing at just over $12.6 billion, again set a year ago, we currently expect the catastrophe bond market will see that record fall in 2025 as well, perhaps meaningfully.
Don’t forget, you can track catastrophe bond issuance and the pipeline of deals due to settle in this chart.
You can track settled cat bond issuance by month and quarter in this chart (use the key of months at the bottom to include and exclude any from your analysis).
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.