The Bermuda Stock Exchange has been cited for its 2023 record $60 billion market in insurance-linked securities, before slipping off the pace last year.

But ILS Market authority Artemis also acknowledged the BSX for remaining the world leader for the listing of ILS instruments through 2024.

With about 92 per cent of outstanding catastrophe bond issuance finding a home at the BSX as at year’s-end, Artemis observed yesterday that the BSX had carved out its leading position thanks to the efficiency of its listings service offering and its engagement with the ILS market over many years.

Artemis describes itself as “the longest running news, analysis and data media service devoted to the catastrophe bond, insurance linked security, non-traditional reinsurance capital, insurance linked investments and associated alternative risk transfer markets”.

It has more than 14,000 subscribers and more than 75,000 monthly readers.

Artemis said the BSX was “helped by the fact the island of Bermuda remains the pre-eminent domicile for locating and transacting ILS, with the majority of the global market utilising structures there for catastrophe bonds and the full range of collateralised reinsurance arrangements.”

The publication said: “This is testament not just to the expertise located on the island and the fact Bermuda responded quickly in the early 2000s to capture a large share of cat bond and ILS activity, but also to the fact its regulator has gone to great lengths to ensure ILS structures in Bermuda meet the needs of both sponsors and investors, while ensuring oversight is robust and matches or bests international capital market standards.

“At the end of 2023, the Bermuda Stock Exchange had grown its overall insurance-linked securities listings, including catastrophe bond programmes and notes, any preference or other share types from quota share structures such as reinsurance sidecars, listed fund units, and mortgage insurance-linked securities to an overall value of $59.15 billion.

“That represented a new high, but even before that it had become evident the mortgage insurance-linked securities segment was shrinking, as sponsors redeemed notes and this has continued through 2024, resulting in a shrinking of the overall ILS listings for the BSX.

“Overall insurance-linked listings declined to just under $56 billion last year, but, mortgage deals aside, in the catastrophe and non-catastrophe ILS and cat bond space, the BSX has continued to expand and grow its market share, as well.”

Artemis said catastrophe bond related listings grew by 10 per cent over the course of 2024 to reach almost $44.9 billion. Including the “non-cat bonds”, the BSX’s listings reached $45.43 billion at year’s end.

Artemis added: “Most impressive though is the fact the BSX has maintained its dominance of the catastrophe bond related listings market in 2024, benefiting from the significant issuance seen.”

At the end of 2023, the BSX housed almost 92 per cent of the market. Even with changes in cat and non-cat bond listings, the percentage of cat bond market risk capital outstanding housed, remains the same.

That was because the BSX has listed virtually every catastrophe bond that came to market in 2024.

The number of catastrophe bond programme structures listed on the BSX rose from 108 to 114 over the course of 2024.

Artemis said: “These programme structures are typically able to issue multiple series of catastrophe bond notes and can live for a number of years, being reused by their sponsoring insurance and reinsurance companies.

“So the increase in programmes is also indicative of the health and growth of the catastrophe bond market, so another positive indicator for the BSX, Bermuda and the rest of the ILS sector.

“The BSX has benefited from its attention to detail in how it approaches the ILS market, the ease of interacting with it and service level it provides to sponsors, issuers and other market participants, all of which enable it to continue to dominate the ILS market as a listing venue.”