Here's our latest Friday wrap-up of key news from the week.
Super Early Bird tickets are running low for our Artemis London 2026 conference (register here).
In the catastrophe bond market this week, first-half issuance continues to build, helped by a new $1.5bn Merna cat bond sponsorship from State Farm.
As a result, settled issuance of 144A and private cat bonds has now reached almost $14.4bn in 2026, while the latest H1 projection is for around $16.6bn, a figure that could still increase.
New cat bond offerings launched this week from NJM Insurance with its third transaction, Lloyd's specialist Oak Global with its debut cat bond and the Massachusetts MPIUA returned.
It was a busy week with new cat bonds priced and finalised from: TWIA with a $750m Alamo Re; Nationwide Mutual with a $350m Aquila Re I; the government of Jamaica with its third IBRD cat bond; Travelers with a $750m Long Point Re IV; SCOR with its latest $75m Atlas retro bond; Mangrove with its debut $111m Buttonwood Re; and Allstate with a $200m Florida focused cat bond issuance.
In addition, the US Coastal insurers are targeting lower pricing with their latest Chartwell Re cat bond.
In other stories this week, a survey by Gallagher Securities found 60% of investors are looking to increase their allocations to ILS, with cat bonds the instrument most in focus.
New French asset manager atmencapital intends to launch the first France-regulated and located UCITS catastrophe bond fund.
Insurers in Florida are expected to benefit from more pronounced rate softening at the mid-year renewals, AM Best said.
TWIA secured its fully-committed $2.28bn of reinsurance and cat bonds at the lowest price, as its broker put the traditional and ILS market into competition for the same layer.
NOAA forecast a 55% chance of a below-average Atlantic hurricane season this year.
Ariel SSPE has emerged as the third ILS issuance structure in Brazil, while broker Lockton Re launched a dedicated Brazil ILS platform offering.
The Bermuda Stock Exchange grew its market share of cat bonds in its latest Q1 listings data.
The City of Zurich Pension Fund's ILS allocation grew to around US $1.58bn in 2025.
Finally, if you haven't seen them, Artemis has a wealth of data and analytics on the catastrophe bond and broader ILS market. View our charts and Deal Directory.
Catch up on our video interviews with ILS market leaders here.
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We'll be back next week with more regular coverage.
We hope you have a safe & relaxing weekend.
