NEW YORK--While insurers are breathing a sigh of relief that 2006 will pass without a major catastrophe, the industry is still in financial recovery and securitization will continue to play a major role in that recovery, according to executives at Swiss Re.

In its latest report, "Securitization--new opportunities for insurers and investors," the company said the practice for the industry, while around a decade old, still remains new, but growing as reinsurers and insurers look to provide capacity for client's catastrophe risks through catastrophe bonds.

In the past five years, the report notes, the property-casualty securities have doubled, and coupled with life bonds, have taken the volume of securities to $23 billion. By 2016, the volume of insurance-linked securities is expected to grow to between $150- and $350 billion, and remain an important source of capacity for the industry, the reinsurer estimates.