Following a record-setting first quarter, catastrophe bond issuance activity surged even further. Sponsors completed 21 transactions and raised an eye-popping USD 6.5 billion. That brought first-half totals to 29 transactions and nearly USD 8.8 billion in new limit, reads the recent PCS® H1 2017 Catastrophe Bond Report.

To put this in perspective, the first half of 2017 was larger than the largest full year in catastrophe bond market history-and the second quarter alone would be among the top five years.

With this much activity, it's hard to characterize it in specific terms. While transactions came from experienced sponsors, there were four debut issuances. Fourteen were small transactions (USD 200 million or less), and the remainder ranged in size from USD 200 million to USD 950 million. Two nearly reached USD 1 billion each. Three sponsors accounted for more than USD 2 billion in capital raised in the second quarter, and since the beginning of the year, USD 3 billion came from only five. Since the beginning of the year, 14 transactions have come from transactions of less than USD 200 million, showing that a handful of larger catastrophe bonds have made a difference.

Essentially, with so many catastrophe bonds completed, it's safe to say that there's (at least) a little of everything, concludes the report.

PCS® H1 2017 Catastrophe Bond Report contains data about the Cat bond issuance activity in the first half of 2017, as well as in a historical perspective. Data are anlized also in a territorial framework, as well as on the main risk categories.

Download the full report here, courtesy to PCS.