Massive $10.5bn Q2 accelerates 2025 catastrophe bond issuance: Report

Issuance of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) approached a massive $10.5 billion for the second-quarter of 2025, growing the outstanding cat bond market by $4.6 billion to a new end of quarter high of $56.7 billion, Artemis’ new quarterly cat bond market report shows.

The Artemis Q2 2025 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.

The almost $10.5 billion of new issuance our new report analyses came to market from 38 catastrophe bond transactions comprised of 58 tranches of notes.

It’s been the biggest quarter in the cat bond market’s history and includes the largest month ever, with May seeing almost $6 billion of issuance.

While, more impressively, just in the first six months of 2025, new annual records have already been set for 144A property cat bond and total 144A cat bond issuance.

In our brand new report, we dissect the record level of second-quarter issuance in 2025, analysing the metrics that matter and explaining just how massive a period this has been for the market and just how significant first-half issuance has been as well.

Remember, all of our interactive catastrophe bond market charts are always kept up-to-date as every new cat bond issuance settles. So you can track the market in real-time with Artemis, the only place with such depth of data available and aligned with the market as it moves through every quarter and year.

Another impressive feat of Q2 and H1 2025 issuance is that it far outpaced maturities, which were by no means minimal at $5.9 billion and $10.3 billion, respectively. As a result, the outstanding market size has also set a new end of quarter and all-time end of period record, expanding by 15% from the end of 2024 to June 30^th, 2025 to reach just over $56.7 billion.

In this report, we break down, and compare year-on-year, quarterly and half-year 2025 issuance by numerous metrics, including peril and trigger, and examine pricing dynamics and the size of deals as investor and sponsor appetite continues to take the market to new heights.

A joint record eight new sponsors entered the cat bond market in Q2 2025, taking the year’s total to 11, while issuance from repeat sponsors was extremely strong, and featured the largest cat bond in the market’s history.

Issuance so far in 2025, across 144A cat bonds and private cat bonds we’ve tracked, at over $17.56 million for the first-half is very close to the Artemis-tracked annual record of $17.7 billion from full-year 2024, with new quarterly records set in both Q1 and Q2.

Last year’s Q2 was the first time issuance had exceeded $8 billion ($8.4bn) in a single quarter, but this year’s Q2 total has raised the bar to a record $10.5 billion, reflecting 25% year-on-year issuance growth, our new report shows.

Q2 2025 was a strong quarter for transactions focused solely on US catastrophe risks, accounting for 74%, or $8.1 billion of quarterly issuance and reflecting US sponsors increasing comfort with cat bonds as part of their reinsurance.

Indemnity trigger structures accounted for 82%, or $8.6 billion of Q2 2025 issuance, which is up on last year’s 75%, and a continuation of the trigger’s dominance in cat bond transactions.

Despite evident softening of the market and very strong execution of new cat bond deals, pricing dynamics are clearly favourable still for both sponsors and investors, as transactions successfully secured a record level of new risk capital.

Annual 2024 issuance of $17.7 billion was a truly impressive feat after the previous record of $16.4 billion was set in 2023. But in just the first six months of 2025, cat bond and related ILS issuance has already hit a massive $17.6 billion, and at just $133 million below the full-year record, 2025 is very likely to be another record year for issuance with more than this already in the deal pipeline for July, according to the Artemis Deal Directory.

The size of the outstanding cat bond market size has increased by around $4.6 billion to a new end of quarter high of $56.7 billion. In fact, the size of the outstanding cat bond market at June 30^th, 2025, is 15% larger than it was at the end of 2024, despite $10.3 billion of maturities having occurred during H1 2025.

2025 is almost certain to be a record year for catastrophe bond and related ILS issuance, it already is for Rule 144A deals only, and with an H2 issuance average over the past decade of $3.7 billion, there’s a good chance annual issuance exceeds the $20 billion milestone, which is very impressive considering that annual issuance since 2016 has only averaged $10.7 billion.

Even if it’s only an average second half of the year, with just $3.3 billion of maturities left in 2025, market growth will be sustained heading into next year, Artemis’ data shows.

Download your copy of the new Q2 2025 Artemis cat bond market report here.

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 2025 progresses, and we’ll report on the evolving trends in the cat bond, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralized reinsurance market.

For full details of second-quarter 2025 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 2025 Cat Bond & ILS Market Report here.

 

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