Catastrophe bonds - Maintaining an equilibrium in value, for sponsors & investors: ILS NYC 2026

This episode features another of our panel discussions at Artemis ILS NYC 2026, our tenth catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference in the ILS NYC series, held on February 6th 2026 in New York.

This panel was focused on the catastrophe bond market segment and titled "Cat bonds: Maintaining an equilibrium in value, for both sponsors and investors."

This cat bond focused panel discussion was kindly moderated by Philipp Kusche, Chairman HCMA Europe, Global Co-Head ILS, Howden Capital Markets & Advisory.

He was joined on stage by: Stephan Ruoff, Co-Head of Private Debt & Credit Alternatives, Chairman ILS, Schroders Capital; Michael Bennett, Global Head Market Solutions & Structured Finance, World Bank; Niklaus Hilti, Chief Investment Officer, Euler ILS Partners; and Paul VanderMarck, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, SageSure.

Our panellists explored the current state of the catastrophe bond market and the need to balance investor and sponsor demands, highlighting a record-fast spread tightening in recent months and still-increasing interest from an increasingly broad range of investors.

Key points included the impact of investor interest on the cat bond asset class from both traditional allocators, as well as newer types of quantitative investors and wealth platforms. The discussion covered the importance of capacity and pricing, the need for continued evolution in parametric cat bond triggers, and the challenges of managing liquidity in the market.

Panellists suggested that future growth predictions for the cat bond market ranged from 5-10% annually, sometimes higher, with a goal of reaching an asset class sized at around $100 billion in outstanding cat bonds by 2030.

They also discussed the importance of managing capacity against demand and how this could become a challenge as the cat bond market grows, as well as the need to keep improving secondary market liquidity and functionality.

Listen to the full audio of this panel discussion from our Artemis ILS NYC 2026 conference to learn more about conditions in the catastrophe bond marketplace, from the perspective of both investors and sponsors.