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SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2011
SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION [Abstract] |
SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION [Text Block] | 15. SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION In May 2007, our shareholders approved the establishment of the AXIS Capital Holdings Limited 2007 Long-Term Equity Compensation Plan (“2007 Plan”). The 2007 Plan provides for, among other things, the grant of restricted stock, restricted stock units, non-qualified and incentive stock options, and other equity-based awards to our employees and directors. In May 2009, our shareholders approved an amendment to the 2007 Plan, resulting in an increase in the total number of common shares authorized for issuance by 4,000,000 for a total of 9,000,000 common shares. As a result of the adoption of the 2007 Plan, the 2003 Long-Term Equity Compensation and 2003 Directors Long-Term Equity Co mpensation Plan were terminated, except that all related outstanding awards will remain in effect. We currently issue restricted stock and restricted stock units to our employees with service conditions only, vesting generally over a period of four years with 25% of the award vesting annually. Grants provided under the 2007 Plan allows for accelerated vesting provisions upon the employee's death, permanent disability, or certain termination s following a change in control of the Company occurring within a 24 month period of the change in control event. Notwithstanding these vesting provisions, the Compensation Committee of our Board has broad authority to accelerate vesting at its own discretion. For our non-management directors, we issue common shares under the 2007 Plan with no restriction. Subsequent to December 31, 201 1 and up to February 7, 201 2 we granted a total of 1,850,6 07 restricted stock and restricted stock units to our employees and non-management directors. At February 7, 2012, 678,319 equity-based awards remain available for grant under the 2007 Plan. We have granted stock options under the 2003 Plans; however none have been issued since 2005. All outstanding stock options are fully vested and exercisable. These options expire ten years from the date of grant. a) Restricted Stock
The following table provides a reconciliation of the beginning and ending balance of nonvested restricted stock (including restricted stock units) for the year ended December 31, 2011:
|  |  |  | Number of |  | Weighted Average |
|  |  |  | Restricted |  | Grant Date |
|  |  |  | Stock |  | Fair Value |
| Nonvested restricted stock - beginning of year |  | 3,882 |  | $ | 31.95 |
| Granted |  | 1,839 |  |  | 36.12 |
| Vested |  | (1,822) |  |  | 34.78 |
| Forfeited |  | (83) |  |  | 29.48 |
| Nonvested restricted stock - end of year | 3,816 |  | $ | 32.69 |
(1) Fair value is based on the closing price of our common shares on the New York Stock Exchange on the day of the grant.
During 201 1, we granted 1,839,250 restricted stock (2010: 1,496,550; 2009: 1,281,500) to our employees with a weighted average grant-date fair value per share of $36.12 (20 10: $28.91; 20 09: $26.39). A t December 31, 2011, the total n on vested restricted stock in the above table included 378,937 of restricted stock units (2010: 289,875). During 201 1, we incurred a compensation cost of $39 million (20 10: $37 million; 200 9: $48 million) in respect of restricted stock and restricted stock units, and recorded tax benefits thereon of $7 million (20 10: $6 million; 200 9: $6 million). The total fair value of shares vested during 2011 was $63 million (20 10: $56 million; 20 09: $57 million). At December 31, 2011, we had 3,815,975 (2010: 3,882,303) non vested restricted stock outstan ding with $86 million (2010: $61 million) of unrecognized compensation cost. These are expected to be recognized over the weighted average period of 2.6 years (20 10: 2.6 years). b) Stock options
The following is a summary of stock options outstanding and exercisable at December 31, 2011 and related activity for the year ended:
|  |  |  |  |  | Weighted |  |  |  |
|  |  |  | Weighted |  | Average |  |  |  |
|  | Number |  | Average |  | Remaining |  |  | Aggregate |
|  | of Stock |  | Exercise |  | Contractual |  |  | Intrinsic |
|  | Options |  | Price |  | Term |  |  | Value(1) |
| Outstanding and exercisable - beginning of year | 2,318 |  | $ | 22.26 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Granted | - |  |  | - |  |  |  |  |  |
| Exercised | (650) |  |  | 15.98 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Expired | - |  |  | - |  |  |  |  |  |
| Outstanding and exercisable - end of year | 1,668 |  | $ | 24.71 |  | 2.09 |  | $ | 12,095 |
(1) The aggregate intrinsic value in the table above represents the total pre-tax intrinsic value (the difference between our closing stock price at December 31, 2011 and the exercisable price, multiplied by the number of in-the-money-options) that would have been received by the stock option holder had all stock option holders exercised their stock options on December 31, 2011.
The total intrinsic value of stock options exercised during 201 1 was $9 million (20 10: $4 million) and we received proceeds of $5 million (2010: $8 million). For these exercised stock options, we issued new shares from the authorized share capital pool rather than from our treasury pool.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for compensation-related costs for equity-based compensation, which may include disclosure of policies, compensation plan details, allocation of equity compensation, incentive distributions, equity-based arrangements to obtain goods and services, deferred compensation arrangements, employee stock ownership plan details and employee stock purchase plan details. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 718 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6415400&loc=d3e5444-113901 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher AICPA -Name Statement of Position (SOP) -Number 93-6 -Paragraph 53 -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher SEC -Name Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) -Number Topic 14 Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) -Number 123R -Paragraph 64, 65, A240 -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. Reference 5: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 718 -SubTopic 40 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6418621&loc=d3e17540-113929 Reference 6: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 718 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6415400&loc=d3e5047-113901 Reference 7: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 505 -SubTopic 50 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6406099&loc=d3e25284-112666 Reference 8: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 718 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6415400&loc=d3e5070-113901 + Details
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