Market Size

27Jul11

Catastrophe bonds and, more broadly, Insurance-Linked Securities were first invented in the 1990’s to transfer insurance and reinsurance risks to the broader capital markets. Many different names are given to the ILS markets. In London, many call the ILS market the Convergence market or ART (Alternative Risk Transfer) market. In the US, some call ILS the RLS (Risk-Linked Securities) or, less commonly, ELS (Event-Linked Securities). While continually evolving in nature, the ILS market has grown from under a billion dollars in 1997 to approximately US$25-30 billion in 2011, with roughly half of that total in catastrophe bonds. This long-term 25% compound annual growth rate is expected to continue into the next 3 to 5 years as institutional investors and high net worth individuals continue to discover the diversification benefits and absolute returns that catastrophe bonds and other ILS can contribute to their portfolios.