Strong July lifts UCITS catastrophe bond fund average return to 4.39% YTD

Catastrophe bond funds in the UCITS format experienced their best month of 2025 so far in July, as seasonality kicked in and lifted the average performance for the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices to a 4.39% return year-to-date.

The latest data for the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices shows that July 2025 saw the average return across the cohort of UCITS catastrophe bond funds rising to 1.09% for the month, the highest monthly performance seen so far this year.

As we reported last week, the benchmark index for the outstanding catastrophe bond market, the Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Index, returned 1.47% for July as hurricane season effects lifted performance.

That was in the top two July returns on-record for this broad benchmark for the market basket of cat bonds, while the seasonal effects were also evident in the overall yield of the catastrophe bond market which began its seasonal decline.

As we had explained a month ago, there may have been some price recovery effects in the July performance of catastrophe bonds as well, given a number of aggregate positions had reached the end of their risk periods without loss and recouped some value.

Looking back at the rest of 2025, the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices had delivered a 0.40% return for January, 0.32% for February, 0.56% for March, 0.28% for April, 0.52% for May and 0.58% for June.

The 1.09% average return across UCITS cat bond funds for July was therefore significantly stronger, with the effects of loss activity earlier in the year from the California wildfires and certain aggregate positions now firmly in the rear-view mirror, lifting the year-to-date average return to 4.39%.

The lower-risk group of UCITS cat bond funds is still outperforming, on average, with a 1.12% return for July lifting the average year-to-date across these strategies to 4.54%.

Given they were largely underweight to aggregate cat bonds and wildfire deals, these strategies fared better through the first-half of the year.

The higher-risk cohort of UCITS cat bond funds averaged a 1.05% return for July 2025, taking their YTD return to 4.23% as of August 1st.

On a capital-weighted basis, the Plenum CAT Bond Fund Indices delivered a 1.13% return for the last month and now stands at 4.03% year-to-date.

Looking back at the trailing twelve-month period, the average return for this Index of UCITS catastrophe bond funds stood at 11.53% as of August 1st 2025, with 11.37% for the lower-risk cohort, 11.61% for the higher-risk cat bond funds and capital-weighted also 11.61%.

As we now approach the peak of the US hurricane season the performance of these catastrophe bond funds will continue to be driven by seasonality, while any storm activity of note would be the main detractor from a potential sustained period of higher performance.

Analyse UCITS cat bond fund performance, using the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices.

Analyse UCITS catastrophe bond fund assets under management using our charts here.

Analyse catastrophe bond market yields over time using this chart.