Issuance of Rule 144A property catastrophe bonds in 2025 surpassed the $20 billion milestone today as the settlement of the largest wildfire cat bond ever seen, sponsored by the California FAIR Plan, has taken the total for the year-to-date to just over $20.7 billion, Artemis data shows.
Notably and underscoring just how incredible issuance has been this year, when looking at only 144A property catastrophe bonds, annual issuance in 2025 is now already more than $4.1 billion higher than the previous annual record.
That’s as of today, given the official settlement of the California FAIR Plan’s $750 million Golden Bear Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) cat bond occurs.
This record largest pure wildfire catastrophe bond sets a new benchmark for the capital markets’ appetite for that peril and further underscores the ability of the cat bond sector to support the significant reinsurance needs of insurer’s of last resort.
It has also propelled the 144A property cat bond issuance total for 2025 over the $20 billion milestone.
You can analyse catastrophe bond issuance by type and year in this chart, which you can filter using the key to view only 144A property cat bond deals:
So, Rule 144A property cat bond issuance now stands at just over $20.7 billion year-to-date in 2025.
Beating the record set in 2024, of just under $16.6 billion by a significant margin and representing a more than $4.1 billion increase year-on-year with still additional cat bonds in this market segment left to settle.
Total Rule 144A issuance, so including cat bonds structured as Rule 144A but covering other types of risks from cyber to terrorism, now stands at almost $21.7 billion for 2025.
Add in the private cat bonds we’ve tracked and total market issuance, according to Artemis’ data, has reached almost $22.3 billion so far in 2025.
As said, you can analyse catastrophe bond issuance by type and year in this chart, which you can filter using the key to view the different categories of deals.
The cat bond market pipeline currently features roughly $2.87 billion of additional Rule 144A property catastrophe bonds, based on the latest sizes we have for individual deals scheduled to settle before the end of 2025.
As a result, 144A property catastrophe bond issuance could reach around $23.6 billion by the end of this year, if all deals settle on schedule and at current sizing, Artemis’ latest projection shows.
Of course, there is every chance more of these deals increase in size before they settle, given the strong investor appetites and deal execution we are seeing at this time.
So that projection could move higher and set an even higher benchmark for future years to beat.
Analyse the catastrophe bond market using our charts and visualisations, which are kept up-to-date as every new transaction settles.
Download our free quarterly catastrophe bond market reports.
We track catastrophe bond and related ILS issuance data, the most prolific sponsors in the market, most active structuring and bookrunning banks and brokers, which risk modellers feature in cat bonds most frequently, plus much more.
Find all of our charts and data here, or via the Artemis Dashboard which provides a handy one-page view of cat bond market metrics.
All of these charts and visualisations are updated as soon as a new cat bond issuance is completed, or as older issuances mature.
All of our catastrophe bond market charts and visualisations are up-to-date and include data on new cat bond transactions as they settle.
