The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), the organization responsible for regulating Bermuda’s financial services industry, has released data for the fourth quarter of 2025, showing continued expansion of the island’s alternative capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets.
According to the data, Bermuda remains an important global center for alternative capital and ILS activity. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, Bermuda-domiciled ILS funds represented approximately 8% of all regulated funds in the jurisdiction and 6.1% of total net asset value.
This marks an increase from 5% in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023. Reported net assets in the fourth quarter of 2024 reached $13.71 billion, continuing a pattern of steady growth that has been in place for several years.
The jurisdiction’s investment funds framework drives this trend by providing a structure for institutional and sophisticated investors engaged in alternative capital and ILS strategies, including collateralized reinsurance.
Growth in this sector also supports Bermuda’s broader alternative capital market, which includes traditional insurance companies, special purpose insurance companies (SPIs) and mortgage insurance arrangements that enable the transfer of catastrophe and other insurance risks to international capital markets.
Preliminary data for the first quarter of 2026 suggest that economic activity remains strong. The BMA reported that seven new SPIs and two new mortgage insurers were registered in the first quarter of this year. This follows the addition of 25 SPIs and 10 mortgage insurers by 2025, demonstrating continued demand for fully collateralized reinsurance and capital markets-based solutions.
“Bermuda continues to serve as the premier jurisdiction connecting global capital to insurance and reinsurance risks,” commented Melissa Burgess, Director of Supervision at the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
“The BMA provides a stable, transparent and efficient regulatory environment that underpins the continued growth and resilience of the alternative capital and ILS markets. This is supported by the Authority’s fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for insurance and investment structures and fast-track listing approvals for special purpose insurers trading catastrophe bonds.”
The BMA adopts a risk-based proportional regulatory approach designed to accommodate new alternative capital structures while maintaining market stability and investor protection. In the field of catastrophe bonds, the Authority can establish an SPI in a short period of time, and approval is usually completed in about three days, allowing transactions to proceed efficiently.
Bermuda continues to play a central role in the global market for catastrophe bonds and other fully collateralized risk transfer instruments. Bermuda-based insurers accounted for approximately 92% of global alternative capital in 2024, according to the Bermuda Association of Insurers and Reinsurers.
