Catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance hit $6.7 billion in the first quarter of 2026, as a Q1 record 35 transactions came to market from a host of repeat and three first time sponsors, reports Artemis.
The Artemis Q1 2026 catastrophe bond and related ILS market report is now available to download for free. The report dissects the second-largest first quarter of issuance in the market’s history, as momentum from the record-breaking 2025 persisted.
Of the $6.7 billion of quarterly issuance, a significant $6 billion were traditional 144A property catastrophe bonds, which, combined with $385 million of deals covering non-catastrophe risks, took total Rule 144A issuance for the period to $6.4 billion. While this is strong, it’s below the Q1 record of $7 billion for these types of deals, set in 2025.
While the large majority of these transactions were sponsored by repeat cat bond market players, ILS manager-backed Integral Reinsurance, as well as Lumen Re and Plymouth Rock Assurance, sponsored their first deals in Q1 2026.
The quarter also featured $278 million of cat bond lite, or privately placed issuance, which, with the exception of another cloud outage risk deal from Hannover Re, sized at $35 million, all cover property catastrophe risks.
During the first three months of 2026, new issuance outpaced maturities, resulting in 4% market growth from the end of 2025 to $63.9 billion as at the end of March 2026, which is the largest size ever for the outstanding cat bond market at the end of a quarter.
Artemis’ data shows that there’s a huge $7.3 billion of maturities scheduled between April and the end of June, so an above average second quarter is required to sustain market growth through the first half of the year. Currently, the extensive Artemis Deal Directory already has more than $2 billion of issuance in the pipeline for April, so there’s every chance issuance outpaces maturities in Q2 as well.
Download the Artemis Q1 2026 cat bond and related ILS market report to delve deeper into the quarter’s issuance trends, including triggers, perils, maturities, and pricing dynamics of the tranches of notes issued.
