$4.6bn in 20 cat bond deals

Aon Benfield Securities says there was $4.6bn of new issuance catastrophe bonds in 20 deals in the 12 months to the end of June, compared with $1.7bn in 11 deals the year before, the FT reports.

“Our expectations are that the forward pipeline will be equally strong on the second half of this year,” said Paul Schultz, president of the investment banking arm.

“We probably have more active investors than ever and, unlike 2006 and 2007, we don’t have the opportunistic hot money we saw then.”