Q3 2025 cat bond issuance of $1bn+ takes nine-month total to record $18.6bn: Artemis

Catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance of $1.036 billion in the third quarter of 2025 has taken issuance for the nine-month period to September 30th, 2025, to $18.6 billion, which is a new annual record for the market, according to the latest quarterly report from Artemis.

The Q3 2025 cat bond and related ILS market report from Artemis, our ILS-focused sister publication, is now available to download free.

The report dissects and compares year-on-year, quarterly and nine-month 2025 issuance by peril and trigger, explores pricing dynamics as well as the size of deals, upcoming maturities, and more.

While Q3 2025 itself wasn’t a record quarter for the market, it was above-average and the fourth largest Q3 ever with issuance of more than $1 billion, which came from 23 transactions comprised of 25 tranches of notes. The majority, 17 of the transactions issued in the quarter were privately placed, with the other six all being full Rule 144A property cat bonds.

However, after a busy opening quarter and record second quarter of the year, third quarter issuance has taken nine-month 2025 issuance to a massive $18.6 billion, which is a new annual record for the market, beating 2024’s annual record by 5%, or $903 million, and putting the market on track for the first $20 billion+ issuance year.

Despite issuance hitting new heights in the third quarter, the outstanding market has shrunk in size from the end of Q2, ending Q3 at $56.1 billion, which is down 1% on the end-of-quarter high of $56.7 billion at the end of June. This reflects the fact maturities outpaced new issuances in the quarter, but it’s expected that the market will return to growth in the final quarter of the year.

Artemis’ Q3 2025 report also examines pricing dynamics of quarterly and nine-month issuance, revealing continued softening from the highs of 2023. Clearly, though, investor appetite remains strong for the cat bond product, which has helped sponsors achieve strong deal execution.

While private deals, or cat bond lites dominated the third quarter in terms of the number of transactions, the bulk of issuance, $665 million came from the six full Rule 144A property cat bonds, which provided investors with peril and geographical diversification. Another sign of strong demand from the investor base is the fact deals, on average, increased in size while marketing.

Q3 2025 is also the first quarter in quite some time that the indemnity trigger structure did not dominate issuance, with the industry loss trigger more prevalent.

Download your copy of the new Q3 2025 Artemis cat bond market report here.

All of Artemis’ catastrophe bond market charts and visualisations are up-to-date, so include this latest quarter of issuance data.

For details of the transactions issued in Q3 2025 and hundreds of other cat bond and related ILS transactions, visit the extensive Artemis Deal Directory.