The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), the organisation responsible for regulating Bermuda’s financial services sector, has released data for Q4 2025 showing continued expansion in the island’s alternative capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.
According to the figures, Bermuda remains a significant global centre for alternative capital and ILS activity. By the end of Q4 2025, ILS funds domiciled in Bermuda accounted for around 8% of all regulated funds in the jurisdiction and represented 6.1% of total net asset value.
This marks an increase from 5% in Q4 2024 and 4.4% in Q4 2023. Reported net asset values reached $13.71 billion in Q4 2024, extending a pattern of steady growth over several years.
The jurisdiction’s investment fund framework has contributed to this trend by offering structures aimed at institutional and sophisticated investors engaged in alternative capital and ILS strategies, including collateralised reinsurance.
Growth in this segment also supports Bermuda’s wider alternative capital market, which includes traditional insurers, Special Purpose Insurers (SPIs), and collateralised insurance arrangements that enable the transfer of catastrophe and other insurance risks to international capital markets.
Preliminary data for Q1 2026 indicates that activity remains strong. The BMA reported the registration of seven new SPIs and two new collateralised insurers during the first quarter of the year. This follows the addition of 25 SPIs and 10 collateralised insurers across 2025, pointing to continued demand for fully collateralised reinsurance and capital markets-based solutions.
“Bermuda continues to serve as a premier jurisdiction for connecting global capital to insurance and reinsurance risks,” commented Mellisa Burgess, Director of Supervision at the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
“The BMA provides a stable, transparent and efficient regulatory environment that underpins the continued growth and resilience of the alternative capital and ILS market. This is supported by the Authority’s fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for insurance and investment structures and speed-to-market approvals for Special Purpose Insurers conducting cat bond transactions.”
The BMA applies a risk-based and proportionate regulatory approach intended to accommodate new alternative capital structures while maintaining market stability and investor safeguards. In the catastrophe bond sector, the Authority enables the establishment of SPIs within a short timeframe, with approvals typically completed in about three days, allowing transactions to proceed efficiently.
Bermuda continues to play a central role in the global market for catastrophe bonds and other fully collateralised risk transfer vehicles. Data from the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers shows that insurers based in Bermuda accounted for approximately 92% of global alternative capital in 2024.
