Add Axis Re to the growing list of Bermuda-based reinsurance companies who have or are looking to set up shop in Brazil.Located in São Paulo, the new representative office, Axis Re Brazil, will source property and casualty business from Brazil and the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay).The Brazilian reinsurance market has undergone a major transformation in the last five years. In a significant and long-awaited move, the government there enacted a law in 2007, opening up the local reinsurance market and ending a 69-year monopoly of the government reinsurer, IRB Brasil Re.The reforms enacted by the law have opened up the Brazilian market for new domestic and foreign private companies leading to the installation of more than 100 new reinsurers.Axis Re is the latest in a string of Bermuda-based reinsurers to announce this year that they’ll begin operations in Bazil. Alterra and XL have also been granted permission to set up entities, as reported in The Royal Gazette in January. They join other Bermuda-based reinsurers like PartnerRe, as well as brokers Guy Carpenter, Aon Re and Willis who are already set up there.Brazil is the tenth largest economy in the world and largest in Latin America. Some in the industry speculate that reinsurance companies find it a particularly attractive market because of it’s booming contribution to the global economy and because there is little risk of natural catastrophe in the country.Dr Karl Mayr, president and CEO of Axis Re Europe and chairman of Axis Re globally, says the company sees Latin America as a major growth opportunity for property and casualty reinsurance.“Having established a significant market position in the Latin American credit and bond markets over the last two years, it is a natural progression to add traditional property and casualty lines to our offerings and develop broad relationships in the region,” Dr Mayr said. “Adding São Paulo as a hub to source property and casualty business for Brazil and the Southern Cone region is a logical step given the increasing importance of the Brazilian and regional economies.”Heading up the new branch is Alain Derron, former vice-president of Zurich Latin America.