The California Earthquake Agency (CEA) increased its total risk transfer limits from $7.912 billion at the end of 2025 to $8.214 billion as of April 30, 2026, solely due to an increase in traditional reinsurance limits from $5.037 billion to approximately $5.34 billion in the first four months of 2026.
CEA’s total risk transfer plan includes $2.875 billion in effective catastrophe bond protection as of the end of April 2026, the same figure as the end of 2025.
Compared to the same period last year, total risk transfer limits increased by 5.3% to $8.214 billion from $7.797 billion as of April 30, 2025.
CEA also reported that effective exposure had increased to more than $656.3 billion as of April 2026, up 1.8% from $644.4 billion a year earlier.
This growth in risk exposure drove the need for additional financing on April 30, 2026, which was reflected in increases in traditional reinsurance limits.
Additionally, CEA successfully priced and achieved an upward target of $425 million in fully collateralized earthquake reinsurance protection through its new Sutter Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) catastrophe bond sponsorship.
As $425 million in cat bond protection expires on June 13, 2026, the latest issuance of cat bond protection effectively replaces that bond, leaving the total effective cat bond protection unchanged.
To learn more about the Sutter Re Series 2026-1 catastrophe bond issuance or other transactions, please visit our sister publication Artemis’ Deal Directory.
CEA has a large number of traditional reinsurance contracts coming due for the remainder of the year, as well as $880 million of cat bonds due to mature at the end of November, so it will be interesting to see how the combination of traditional reinsurance limits and cat bond protection evolves for the insurer amid soft reinsurance pricing.
