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Hamilton Insurance Group is looking to issue at least $250 million Easton Re Ltd. (Series 2027-1) single-tranche three-year catastrophe (CAT) bonds. They will cover losses from named storms across the U.S., DC, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands, earthquakes across the U.S. and Canada on a weighted industry loss trigger and per-occurrence basis. [Source: Artemis.bm]

The Metallus UK Pension Scheme has agreed a buy-in with Royal London for £40 million covering 493 members in the United Kingdom. The parties agreed a planned progression to buy-out during the exclusivity period. [PensionsAge]

The FirstGroup Pension Scheme’s group section has completed a full buy-in with Aviva Life and Pensions UK for £90 million covering more than 500 members in the United Kingdom. FirstGroup has settled approximately £1.7 billion of pension obligations since 2020. [PensionsAge]

SafePoint Insurance Company is looking to issue at least $250 million Nature Coast Re Ltd. (Series 2026-2) two-tranche four-year catastrophe (CAT) bonds. They will cover losses from named storms across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas on an indemnity and per-occurrence trigger basis. [Artemis.bm]

The World Bank and Nepal have signed a mandate agreement to explore a parametric earthquake catastrophe bond intended to provide rapid funding following a major earthquake. The proposed project, first reported in July 2026, envisages a three-year bond providing between $80 million and $190 million in fully collateralized disaster risk financing from capital markets. World Bank Group Treasury will work with Nepal’s government and market participants to assess the transaction’s feasibility and potential structure within the country’s broader disaster risk management strategy. The agreement initiates this assessment rather than confirming issuance; the bond’s final size and terms remain undetermined. [Artemis.bm]

The UBS (UK) Group Pension Plan has completed a £1.7 billion buy-in with Legal & General Assurance Society Limited covering more than 7,000 members of its UBS Section in the United Kingdom. The transaction included novation of the Plan’s existing longevity hedge with Zurich to Legal & General, with the associated longevity risk reinsured by Canada Life Reinsurance, and follows a £900 million buy-in for the Credit Suisse Section in 2024, leaving both sections insured with Legal & General. [L&G]

Hannover Re is looking to issue at least $200 million Acorn Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) Class A single-tranche three-year catastrophe (CAT) bonds. They will cover losses from earthquakes in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, British Columbia in Canada, Baja California and Sonora in Mexico, and certain offshore areas of the Pacific on a parametric and per-occurrence basis. [Artemis.bm]

USAA is looking to issue at least $225 million Residential Reinsurance 2026 Limited (Series 2026-2) three-tranche four-year catastrophe (CAT) bonds. They will cover losses from tropical cyclones, earthquakes (plus fire following), severe thunderstorm, winter storm, wildfire, volcanic eruption, meteorite impact, other perils (all including auto & renter policy flood losses) across the United States on an indemnity and per-occurrence basis. [Artemis.bm]

American National Insurance Company has completed a longevity reinsurance transaction with Pacific Life Re covering $3 billion of pension risk transfer liabilities in the United States. The transaction marks Pacific Life Re’s entry into the US market for its Savings & Retirement business. [Pacific Life Re]

Artemis reports $948 million of catastrophe (CAT) bond issuance in 2026 Q3 across 10 transactions and 15 tranches, bringing nine-month issuance to a record $18.9 billion, above the prior nine-month high of $18.6 billion. Property bonds issued under or eligible for Rule 144A accounted for $845.5 million of quarterly volume; private placements accounted for $102.4 million. Outstanding bonds totaled $65.5 billion at quarter-end, down slightly from June but up 7% from year-end 2025. Issuance needs another $1.1 billion to exceed $20 billion for the year, but Artemis estimates $6.7 billion is needed to surpass the $25.6 billion annual record—a much higher bar than the past decade’s $3.2 billion fourth-quarter average. [Artemis.bm]

An OECD policy brief proposes small, locally targeted catastrophe bonds alongside microinsurance to address uninsured disaster losses in emerging Asia. Such bonds could transfer community- or sector-specific risk to institutional investors and provide post-disaster liquidity where national financing arrangements leave households, businesses and local governments exposed. Issues of $5 million or less rose from five in 2014–2020 to 24 in 2020–2025, but most small bonds to date serve insurance-market purposes rather than local disaster protection. Wider use depends on viable transaction costs, reliable local hazard and exposure data, clear responsibility for payout triggers, and intermediaries able to connect communities with capital markets. [Artemis.bm]

Lane Financial finds that the catastrophe (CAT) bond market is softening but has not reached its 2017 low, and says softness could persist into the 2027 hurricane season if the rest of 2026 brings no major losses. The yield on outstanding, non-impaired natural CAT bonds has fallen to 1.9 times expected loss, versus 1.7 times at the first-quarter 2017 trough, indicating less compensation for investors per unit of modeled risk. Pricing could soften further despite the usual tightening ahead of January renewals. The duration remains uncertain: a large CAT that depletes insurance-market capital could reverse the trend, including if a damaging Atlantic storm forms late this year. [Artemis.bm]

The Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA) reported that the U.S. pension risk transfer (PRT) market recorded approximately $3 billion in buyout and buy-in sales in the second quarter of 2026, a 26% decline compared to the same period last year, due chiefly to smaller deal sizes, rather than fewer transactions. The contract count rose 21% to 176, with no transaction exceeding $250 million. Buyouts accounted for $2.77 billion in premiums and buy-ins for $224.9 million. [LIMRA]

UK bulk-annuity activity is expected to accelerate in the second half of 2026 as insurer pricing, capacity, and transaction pipelines remain favorable. First-half new business was £10.2 billion across more than 135 transactions, marginally above the prior-year period but well below the £28.5 billion recorded in the second half of 2025; consultants project full-year volume of £35 billion–£40 billion. Pricing reportedly improved by 3 percent since the start of 2026, partly because the absence of very large early-year deals reduced competition for insurer balance-sheet capacity. New capital, ownership changes, and asset-sourcing partnerships may expand supply, including for smaller schemes. The key uncertainty is whether capacity and pricing remain resilient if large transactions return simultaneously.

Special Melted Products’ defined benefit pension scheme has completed a £52 million full-scheme buy-in with Canada Life, covering 430 members: 300 pensioners and 130 deferred members, in the United Kingdom. The Engineering Council’s defined benefit pension scheme completed a £9 million buyout with Just Group, covering around 90 members, in the United Kingdom; the transaction completed in April. [Pensions Expert]

Catastrophe bonds may become a capital-markets source of insurance capacity for hyperscale data centers as concentrated asset values and exposure to natural catastrophes outstrip conventional insurance and reinsurance capacity; a first dedicated transaction is envisaged within 12–18 months. The rationale is scale: a single campus may carry $20–30 billion of insurable value against an approximately $66 billion outstanding catastrophe-bond market, making risk transfer beyond the traditional market increasingly necessary. Initial structures would likely cover modelled property perils such as hurricanes and earthquakes. The central unresolved issue is pricing and standardization for less-modelled losses—fire, water damage, power interruption, business interruption, cyber risk, sabotage and war—and whether investor capacity can absorb the required limits. [CNBC]

An unnamed UK financial-services pension scheme has completed a £100 million buy-in with Prudential Assurance Company, M&G’s life and pensions subsidiary, covering 650 members in the United Kingdom. The transaction completed in July 2026. [PensionsAge]

The catastrophe-bond market is becoming more closely aligned with conventional primary-insurer reinsurance: indemnity triggers accounted for nearly 78% of 2026 issuance, continuing a rise from 67.5% in 2022. The outstanding market has also shifted decisively toward per-occurrence cover, with aggregate structures falling from 58% of risk capital in 2019 to 36.1% currently. The change reflects both expanding use by primary insurers—whose loss portfolios favour indemnity protection—and investor caution toward aggregate covers, which have proved more vulnerable to frequent loss accumulation under lower retentions and broader peril definitions. Recent aggregate issuance has not offset large indemnity, occurrence-based deals. [Artemis.bm]

Memory Lane Cakes Pension Scheme has completed a bulk purchase annuity buy-out with Utmost Life and Pensions for an undisclosed amount covering 362 scheme members and dependents in the United Kingdom. The transaction finalizes a de-risking process that commenced with a full scheme buy-in in June 2025 and included the completion of guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) equalization over a 13-month transition period. [Longevity & Mortality Investor]

An unnamed manufacturing firm's defined benefit pension scheme has completed a buy-in with Just Group for £11 million covering 87 members (62 pensioners and 25 deferred members) in the United Kingdom. [PensionsAge]

Harneys, a global offshore law firm originally established in the British Virgin Islands, and droppRWA, a Bermuda-based tokenization platform, reportedly plan to issue tokenized catastrophe (CAT) bonds by 2027, transitioning legal ownership directly onto a blockchain. This could compress reconciliation from days to seconds and reduce minimum investments from $250,000 to $5,000 via beneficial interest vehicles. The project is still pending applicable regulatory requirements and approvals. Any platform administrator role would be subject to licensing under Bermuda’s Digital Asset Business Act 2018. [Coindesk]

The Samworth Brothers Limited Superannuation Scheme has completed a buy-in with Canada Life for £400 million covering more than 7,000 members, comprising 3,000 pensioners and 4,000 deferred members, in the United Kingdom. [Pensions Expert]

An unnamed pension scheme has completed a superfund transfer with Clara-Pensions for £40 million covering more than 400 members in the UK. The scheme will join a pooled section of the Clara Pension Trust, representing the second transaction under the provider's dedicated consolidation service for smaller schemes. [Pensions expert]

The Wood Group defined benefit pension scheme has completed a buy-in with Legal & General for £1.65 billion covering 16,400 members in the United Kingdom. The transaction is the largest bulk annuity deal announced in 2026 to date and the first of the year valued above £1 billion. [Pensions Expert]

American Coastal Insurance Company issued $25.5 million Armor Re II Ltd. (Series 2026-2) single-tranche one-year catastrophe (CAT) bonds. They will cover losses from named storms in Florida on an indemnity and per-occurrence basis. [Source: Artemis.bm]

Artex Axcell Re (Bermuda) Limited has issued at least $20 million PI0055 Grantham single-tranche catastrophe (CAT) bonds. The term to maturity, losses covered and the basis on which they are covered were not specified. [Source: Artemis.bm]

S&P published a report that suggests that British life insurance company balance sheets “demonstrate significant resilience” when stress-tested against historical market shocks. The stress test indicated that a representative UK bulk purchase annuity insurer with a 200% coverage ratio could retain coverage above 150% under an extreme composite scenario, including an 11% default rate across illiquid private-credit assets. The exercise applied historical credit shocks, a 20% fall in equity-release-mortgage valuations, and Global Financial Crisis defaults, supporting the view that matching-adjustment portfolios have meaningful loss-absorption capacity. [Longevity & Mortality Investor]

Canadian defined benefit plan sponsors completed $1.5 billion in annuity purchases in Q2 2026, bringing year-to-date pension risk transfer volume to $1.9 billion, per Telus Health. This exceeds first-half 2025 ($0.8 billion) but trails 2024's record pace ($2.6 billion by mid-year, $11 billion full-year). Telus Health attributes activity to strong funded positions and competitive annuity pricing, letting sponsors lock in gains and offload market, interest-rate and longevity risk without cash injections, now framed within broader governance and risk-management strategy rather than as standalone transactions. The firm projects roughly $6 billion for full-year 2026. [Benefits Canada]

Altro Pension Scheme has completed a £85 million buy-in with M&G’s Prudential Assurance Company, covering 740 members and dependants, in the United Kingdom. The transaction was finalised in April 2026 using M&G’s BPA Plus structure. [PensionsAge]

The UK bulk-annuity market appears capital-capable of sustaining projected annual volumes of about £50 billion, but according to PensionsExpert the operational bottleneck is converting pension-scheme buy-ins into full buyouts, which transfers members and liabilities to the insurer. This matters because transaction counts, particularly smaller deals, are rising faster than premium volume and require intensive data cleansing, benefit equalization, administration, and member-transition work. Estimated annual insurer capacity of £65–70 billion may therefore overstate executable capacity where deal fragmentation and post-transaction workloads are high. Insurers are expanding specialist teams and automating processes, but the unresolved issue is whether administration capacity can scale without extending transition periods or compromising service quality. [Pensions Expert]