CAT BOND ISSUANCE SETS NEW RECORD

Catastrophe bond issuance in 2020 reached a new-high, with a record $11bn of pure property cat bonds issued, according to a report from Artemis.bm. The year also recorded $761m of cat bonds for specialty, life, and health insurance risks and just over $4.3bn of mortgage insurance-linked securities (ILS). There were also almost $351m of private catastrophe bonds issued in 2020. Deal volumes also set a new record, with over 80 individual cat bond and ILS transactions in 2020 compared with the previous record of 68 transactions in 2018. There were ten new market entrants, as the range of insurance, reinsurance and corporate sponsors of catastrophe bonds expanded in 2020, Artemis said.