Cat bonds compelling, but often overlooked by fixed income managers: King Ridge
According to a new report from King Ridge Capital Advisors (KRCA), catastrophe bonds are offering more opportunities for bond and multi-asset fund managers to diversify their portfolios, reduce correlations and improve risk-adjusted returns. “Fixed income securities have long been a foundational building block of conservative investment strategies, providing stability and predictability. In recent years, consistently […]
Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) grows ILS 39% in 2024 to US $1.32bn
The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), a large Canadian institutional retirement fund, has expanded its investment allocation to insurance-linked securities (ILS) by approximately 39% in 2024, lifting its investments in the ILS market to approximately US $1.32 billion. The $123 billion pension fund has been allocating to insurance-linked securities (ILS), including catastrophe bonds and […]
Catastrophe bond and ILS investments outperform for NZ Gov Super Fund
The Government Superannuation Fund Authority of New Zealand reported that its catastrophe bond and catastrophe insurance-linked securities (ILS) investments delivered a 14.7% return in the year to mid-2024, one of the strongest performing investment categories in its portfolio. The Government Superannuation Fund Authority of New Zealand is an autonomous entity that manages the pension assets […]
Florida Citizens targets $2.94bn of new reinsurance and cat bonds for 2025
Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state’s insurer of last resort, is aiming to purchase $2.94 billion of new traditional reinsurance and catastrophe bonds for the 2025 hurricane season, which would take its total risk transfer to $4.54 billion this year. Florida Citizens still has $1.6 billion of catastrophe bonds outstanding to provide protection through the 2025 […]
ILS and reinsurance increasingly working together: Wong-Fupuy, AM Best
Third-party capital in the reinsurance market reached record highs in 2024, as broker Guy Carpenter, alongside rating agency AM Best estimated that it reached a substantial $107 billion at year-end, however, a key driver of the increase is the continued growth of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, which is the major component of third-party capital across reinsurance. […]
New capital, coupons, cash from maturities. All drive strong cat bond execution in 2025
The catastrophe bond market has seen very attractive execution on behalf of sponsors so far this year, with a number of factors driving this that have all resulted in abundant capital being available to settle new cat bond issuances, typically at larger sizes and lower pricing. As we’ve explained, new catastrophe bond issuance in 2025 […]
CEA catastrophe bonds now 31% share of tower, as risk transfer declines to $7.85bn
The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) shrank its risk transfer tower through the January renewals, as its traditional reinsurance placements saw further contracts expire, resulting in its catastrophe bonds making up a larger share of the overall at now more than 31%. When we last reported on the CEA’s risk transfer tower, made up of reinsurance […]
Considered capital deployment critical on road to $200bn ILS market: SIFMA 2025
Discussing the road to a $200 billion insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the SIFMA ILS 2025 conference in Miami today, speakers stressed that considered deployment of capital at reasonable pricing and terms will be critical to continuing and perhaps accelerating the current growth trajectory. With catastrophe bond issuance on record-setting pace in 2025 so far and investor […]
Opposing forces driving cat bond market yield sideways at 10.44%: Plenum
The overall yield of the catastrophe bond market stood at 10.44% at the end of February 2025 according to data from specialist manager Plenum Investments, with the company explaining that opposing forces are driving the cat bond market yield sideways at this time. In late 2024, high-demand for catastrophe bond investments had compressed risk spreads resulting in […]
Hong Kong ILS Grant Scheme to be extended again, this time by three years
The government of Hong Kong is budgeting for a further three year extension to its Pilot ILS Grant Scheme, as the Special Administrative Region continues to target bringing catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance to its financial market. Hong Kong aims to continue developing its still nascent insurance‑linked securities (ILS) market, with attracting issuers […]