Renaissancere Holdings Ltd's

The markets in which we operate are highly competitive, and we believe that competition is in general increasing and becoming more robust. Our competitors include independent reinsurance and insurance companies, subsidiaries and/or affiliates of globally recognized insurance companies, reinsurance divisions of certain insurance companies, domestic and international underwriting operations, and a range of entities offering forms of risk transfer protection on a collateralized or other non-traditional basis. As our business evolves, we expect our competitors to change as well.

We believe that our principal competitors in the property catastrophe and specialty reinsurance market include other companies active in the Bermuda market, currently including Allied World Assurance Company, AG, Arch Capital Group Ltd., Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited, Axis Capital Holdings Limited, Chubb Limited, Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., Everest Re Group, Ltd., Hamilton Re Ltd. (“Hamilton Re”), PartnerRe Ltd., Third Point Reinsurance Ltd. (“Third Point”), Validus Holdings, Ltd., White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. and XL Group plc, as well as a growing number of private, unrated reinsurers offering predominately collateralized reinsurance. We also compete with certain Lloyd’s syndicates active in the London market, as well as with a number of other industry participants, such as American International Group, Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Hannover Rückversicherung AG (“Hannover Re”), Ironshore Inc., Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft in München (“Munich Re”) and Swiss Re Ltd.

Hedge funds, pension funds and endowments, investment banks, investment managers (such as Nephila Capital Ltd.), exchanges and other capital market participants are increasingly active in the reinsurance market and the market for related risk, either through the formation of reinsurance companies (which include Greenlight Reinsurance Ltd. and new Bermuda-based entrants, including Aeolus Re Ltd., Hamilton Re, Swan Re Ltd. and Third Point) or through the use of other financial products, such as catastrophe bonds, other insurance-linked securities and collateralized reinsurance investment funds. We expect competition from these sources to continue to increase. In addition, we continue to anticipate growth in financial products offered to the insurance market which are intended to compete with traditional reinsurance, such as exchange traded catastrophe options, insurance-linked securities, unrated privately held reinsurance companies providing collateralized reinsurance, catastrophe-linked derivative agreements and other financial products It is possible that these changing dynamics will meaningfully impact the markets in which we participate, possibly adversely.

The tax policies of the countries where our customers operate, as well as government sponsored or backed catastrophe funds, also affect demand for reinsurance, sometimes significantly. Moreover, government-backed entities increasingly represent competition for the coverages we provide directly or for the business of our customers, reducing the potential amount of third party private protection our clients might need or desire.