Issuance of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) was above-average at $1.036 billion in the third-quarter of 2025, lifting annual issuance to $18.6 billion at the end of the period.Which puts this year well on-track to surpass the $20 billion mark for the first time ever, .For the cat bond space, it’s been a typical albeit above-average, in terms of risk capital brought to market, third quarter.

The $1.036 billion of new issuance came to market from 23 catastrophe bond transactions comprised of 25 tranches of notes.Although 64%, or $665 million of quarterly issuance came from full Rule 144A property cat bonds, in terms of the number of deals, the 17 privately placed transactions we reported on dominated issuance in the period.While the quarter featured no first-time cat bond market entrants, Mercury Insurance did sponsor its first full Rule 144A catastrophe bond deal.

.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.Although Q3 2025 won’t go down as a remarkable quarter in its own right, it has helped to set a new annual issuance record for the cat bond market of a massive $18.6 billion, with the previous record of $17.7 billion actually beaten in July.

The annual Rule 144A property cat bond and total Rule 144A, so including non-cat exposures, issuance records have also been extended after being broken in the second quarter., we break down the quarter, comparing year-on-year and nine-month 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.In terms of market growth, the size of the outstanding market has fallen slightly in the third quarter as a result of maturities outpacing issuances, but it is expected to rebound and hit new heights in the fourth quarter as the market remains well on track to see at least $20 billion of issuance in a single year for the first time ever.

Nine-month 2025 issuance came from 95 transactions, equalling the annual record set in 2023 for the number of transactions, and above the 93 placed in full-year 2024.For issuance to hit the $20 billion annual milestone, a further $1.4 billion is needed in Q4, a period which has averaged issuance of $2.8 billion over the past decade, suggesting a $20 billion+ year is likely for the sector in 2025.For total 144A issuance to reach $20 billion this year, a further $1.9 billion is needed, and for 144A property cat bond issuance to hit the milestone, almost $2.6 billion of that category of deals is required.

The size of the outstanding cat bond market at the end of Q3 is $56.1 billion, so 1% lower than the end-of-quarter high of $56.7 billion at the end of June, reflecting that maturities outpaced new issuances.Our outstanding market metric is still the second highest it’s ever been at the end of a quarter, and is 13% larger than it was at the end of 2024.Almost $1.8 billion of maturities are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2025.

Average Q4 issuance over the past decade is around $2.8 billion, so even if issuance is below average in the final three months of the year, outright market growth from the end of September to the end of December seems likely and that $20 billion milestone, by Artemis’ numbers, looks destined to be surpassed at this stage..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 third-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.  For copies of all our catastrophe bond market reports, ..All of our Artemis Live insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds and reinsurance can be accessed online.

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