Florida’s state-backed insurer Citizens Property Insurance Corp is planning about $3 billion in reinsurance and catastrophe bond protection for the 2026 hurricane season as its exposure continues to shrink.

The insurer said its private risk-transfer programme will total about $2.98 billion, including $1.53 billion carried over from existing catastrophe bonds and about $1.45 billion of new protection, according to board materials released ahead of a March meeting.

The programme is smaller than in recent years as the insurer of last resort moves policies back into the private insurance market.

Citizens said its exposure has fallen sharply after large-scale depopulation efforts.

“Citizens has less demand for risk transfer for the 2026 hurricane season due to depopulation and its shrinking exposure,” the board documents stated.

Florida’s insurance reforms, enacted amid rising premiums and widespread insurer withdrawals, led to a sharp reduction in homeowners’ insurance rates.

Citizens has seen its policy count fall from 1.4 million to roughly 300,000 to 400,000 as private companies re-enter the market, according to Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida, during a visit to Bermuda last year.

The insurer reported earlier that it removed more than 585,000 policies and $235.6 billion of exposure during 2025 as part of efforts to stabilise Florida’s property insurance market, resulting in exposure falling by 67 per cent from 2024 to 2025.

The risk-transfer programme typically includes a mix of traditional reinsurance and catastrophe bonds, much of which is provided to investors by Bermudian reinsurers in the insurance-linked securities market.

Board documents also indicate Citizens may refinance part of its catastrophe bond protection as market conditions improve. The insurer is considering redeeming $1.1 billion of Everglades Re II catastrophe bonds issued in 2024 and replacing them with about $600 million of new bonds at lower pricing.

Officials said falling reinsurance and capital markets costs were a key factor.

“Risk transfer pricing in Florida has decreased by approximately 25 per cent,” the board documents said.

Citizens enters the 2026 storm season with reduced exposure after legislative reforms and market changes encouraged private insurers to take policies back from the state-backed carrier, the company said.

The shift means catastrophe risk is increasingly moving back into the private market.