Axis Capital Holdings

The company believes that the huge catastrophe losses suffered by the property reinsurance market in 2004 and 2005 will eventually drive changes in the primary market where the importance of adequate risk modelling is still not fully appreciated

Two thousand and five was bound to be a tough year for a company which only three years earlier had started out as a pure catastrophe reinsurance specialist in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center. And although the Bermuda based Axis Capital Holdings had by the end of 2005 significantly diversified its overall book of business from the low frequency, high claims risks it started out with in November 2001, it could not entirely escape its origins. The company’s net losses from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma alone came to just over $1bn.