News Archives 2003

AXIS ANNOUCES A.M. BEST RATINGS UPGRADE

Pembroke, Bermuda, March 10, 2003 – AXIS Capital Holdings Limited announced today that A.M. Best has upgraded the financial strength rating of certain of its subsidiaries to A (Excellent) from A- (Excellent).

The financial strength rating of A (Excellent) applies to the following subsidiaries: AXIS Specialty Limited, AXIS Re Limited, AXIS Specialty Europe Limited, AXIS Reinsurance Company and AXIS Specialty Insurance Company.

John Charman, President and CEO, said, “We are delighted with this rating upgrade from Best's and believe that it affirms our substantial financial strength and also recognises the great progress made at Axis over the last 16 months.”

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited is a Bermuda based company with wholly owned (re)insurance subsidiaries which focus on reinsurance and specialty lines of insurance.

The above rating(s) are CPA (Claims Paying Ability) ratings, not investment security ratings and reflect our ability to pay policyholder claims.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a “safe harbor'' for forward-looking statements. This release or any other written or oral statements made by or on behalf of the Company may include forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and financial performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forwardlooking statements. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,'' “will,'' “expect,'' “intend,'' “estimate,'' “anticipate,'' “believe'' or “continue'' or their negative or variations or similar terminology.