Bermuda Stock Exchange sets a record with $70.5B in ILS listings

Artemis reports the Bermuda Stock Exchange closed the second quarter with a record $70.5 billion of catastrophe-bond and ILS listings. The total was $68.5 billion at the end of March. The quarter, Artemis says, set a record for cat-bond issuance, and the exchange added several new private cat-bond and ILS deals during the period.

At June 30, the exchange counted 775 cat-bond and related ILS listings. Cat-bond notes account for 565 of them. Of those, 562 cover catastrophic perils. Three cover terrorism and financial-guarantee risks. The remaining 202 listings are mortgage-ILS deals and cat-bond preference shares. The cat-bond-related listings alone were worth $62.6 billion. That is up from $60.9 billion at the end of March.

Artemis puts the mid-year outstanding for all 144A and private catastrophe bonds at a record $65.6 billion. The BSX's share of that is 95.4%. A quarter earlier it was just under 95%. The exchange is gaining share even as the market expands to new highs, keeping Bermuda the primary listing venue for cat bonds.

The pace of new business helps explain the rising share. In the first half of 2026, the BSX listed 146 ILS securities and program structures. They were worth nearly $16.5 billion. Almost all of that—$16.12 billion—was cat-bond notes. A single mortgage-ILS issuance accounted for the rest. The exchange has also streamlined the listing process for previously approved ILS programs, an effort that likely makes repeat issuance easier, according to a related Artemis report.

The result is a market that keeps concentrating in one place. For an investor, the BSX is where cat bonds live: 95.4% of the market's cat bonds are listed in Bermuda, and the share is rising. Each listing is collateral backing a risk transfer, so the record total is a measure of how much risk is moving into the capital markets. The half-year listing flow came to 146 structures. At that pace, the $70.5 billion figure may soon look dated.