Bermuda-based RAM Reinsurance Company Ltd. has just boosted its piggy bank with more than $57 million in spare change.

This second round of capital funding gives Ram Re around $133 million in shareholders' equity and $121 million in statutory capital.

The financial guaranty reinsurance company, which was formed in February last year with $90 million in capital, reinsures investment grade securities insured in the municipal and structured finance markets.

"Our success in this second round of capital funding demonstrates the growing position RAM Re occupies in the triple-A rated financial guaranty reinsurance market,'' Ram Re chairman, president and CEO Robert Meyer said.

"With this addition of equity capital, our ability to provide clients with increased reinsurance capacity and diversification will be further enhanced.

"In the short history of our operations, the company has developed a reputation for conservative underwriting and responsiveness to clients' needs.

Investors in the financing included Transatlantic Holdings Inc. -- the largest publicly traded US-based reinsurance organisation on the basis of net premiums written -- which handed over $30 million through its Transatlantic Reinsurance company subsidiary.

The company is a new investor in RAM Re but now holds around 20 percent equity.

San-Francisco-headquartered PMI Group Inc. -- one of the largest private mortgage insurers in the US -- contributed $15 million, taking its stake in RAM Re up to just below a quarter.

And private equity fund High Ridge Capital partners coughed up $12.5 million, increasing its holding to around 14 percent.

Transatlantic Holdings Inc. president and CEO Robert Orlich said his company's "strategic investment'' gave it a ticket into the financial guaranty market.

And it would enable Transatlantic to cultivate business opportunities with RAM Re.

PMI Group president and CEO Roger Haughton said: "RAM Re has done an exceptional job capitalising on the growing need for financial guaranty reinsurance worldwide.

"We believe our additional investment in the company represents an outstanding opportunity to help fulfil the increasing demand for financial guaranty reinsurance.'' A statement from RAM Re said the company sought to "create value by providing primary financial guarantors with extended reinsurance capacity and diversification of reinsurance risk''.

Standard & Poor's rates it triple-A while Moody's Investors Service rates it Aa3.