After successfully pricing its latest catastrophe bond, as reported by our insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused sister publication, Artemis, the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) now requires around $1.23 billion of fresh reinsurance to fulfil its risk transfer requirements for 2026.
We reported back in February that the TWIA board adopted a $4.3 billion 1-in-50 PML for the 2026 storm season, with the April 2026 Board meeting confirming that the Association was working to secure $2.28 billion of reinsurance protection to fill out its risk transfer tower, alongside the roughly $2 billion in statutory funding sources.
As reported by Artemis, TWIA has now successfully priced its new Alamo Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) catastrophe bond, securing $750 million of capital markets-backed reinsurance.
The Artemis Deal Directory shows that, currently, TWIA has in-force cat bond risk transfer of $2.45 billion, although $900 million of this is scheduled to mature in June 2026, meaning this protection is unavailable for the upcoming wind season.
Further, Artemis understands that TWIA is set to make some early cat bond redemptions, including $1 billion from the Class A and B notes of its Alamo Re Ltd. (Series 2024-1) cat bond issuance, and the $250 million Class A tranche of notes from its Bluebonnet Re Ltd. (Series 2025-1) deal.
So, this means TWIA has just $300 million of reinsurance coverage from the outstanding Bluebonnet Re Class B and C notes still available for the 2026 storm season, which added to the $750 million of cat bond risk transfer from the Association’s new Alamo Re 2026-1 issuance, suggests TWIA has $1.05 billion of its $2.28 billion of risk transfer needs secured and supplied by the cat bond market.
The figures show that TWIA now needs an additional $1.23 billion in reinsurance to meet its risk transfer needs for the 2026 wind season. It’s unclear whether this will be obtained solely from the traditional reinsurance market or whether TWIA will look to sponsor another cat bond in June, which isn’t unheard of.
Back in April, before the pricing and known size of its latest cat bond, TWIA said it was in the process of placing roughly $1.98 billion of new coverage, noting that it expected it to come from a combination of traditional reinsurance and cat bonds.
