Non-life catastrophe bond issuance levels rose to $4.8 billion in 2010, a 41% increase over 2009, and remain a competitive alternative to catastrophe reinsurance. This session will provide an overview of how the cat bond market works. It will include an explanation of the cost associated with cat bond issuance and how cat bonds are priced, so costs can be identified for use in ratemaking applications. It will also cover the available data that will serve as an introduction to the session RR-3, where the cat bond data will be used in other ratemaking applications. Additionally, Morton Lane plans to share some of the interesting analysis he does on the cat bond market data.