Dateline: 29/10/2001
Additional program will also match employee contributions
SCHAUMBURG, IL, October 29, 2001 -- Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) has announced that it will be making a contribution of $2 million toward assistance for the victims of the tragic events of September 11 and for related general relief efforts. This contribution is in addition to other donations and matching programs already established by Zurich Group businesses, including Zurich North America Corporate, Zurich Scudder Investments, Farmers Insurance Group and Zurich Financial Services UKISA.
"The funds will be used to help the thousands of people affected by this tragedy, including the families of Aon and Marsh & McLennan employees lost in the World Trade Center attack," said Dinos Iordanou, senior executive vice president for Group Operations and Business Development and member of the Group Executive Committee of Zurich Financial Services Group.
Zurich also announced that it will match, dollar-for-dollar up to an additional $500,000, contributions made by any employee in the Group worldwide. Employee donations for September 11 relief efforts made after October 2 will qualify for the matching program. Some local Zurich business units have matched employee donations made prior to that time. Zurich North America Corporate employees have contributed $115,000 since September 11, an amount that is being matched dollar-for-dollar by the Zurich North America Foundation, a U.S. non-profit charitable organization.
"Many Zurich employees from around the world asked if there was some way for them to make personal contributions," said Group Chairman and CEO Rolf Hueppi. "This program will make it easy for them to do so. They will also know that their efforts are being doubled by Zurich’s matching program."
Zurich North America (www.zurichna.com) is a leading commercial property-casualty, health and accident insurance provider serving the multinational, middle market and small business sectors in the United States and Canada. Headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., Zurich North America has 11,650 employees and wrote $8.0 billion in premiums in 2000. Zurich North America includes the Zurich U.S. business units (Corporate Customer, Middle Markets, Small Business, Strategic Partnerships, Construction, Specialties, Zurich Global Energy, Warranty, Surety & Financial Enterprises and Empire Fire and Marine), as well as Universal Underwriters Group and Zurich North America Canada. The Zurich U.S. pool of companies is rated A+ (superior) by A.M. Best and AA (very strong) by Standard & Poor's. Zurich North America is a member of the Zurich Financial Services Group.
The Zurich Financial Services Group (www.zurich.com) is a global leader of integrated financial services, providing its customers solutions in the area of financial protection (non-life insurance and structured solutions) and asset gathering (life insurance and asset management). The Group focuses its activities on key markets, i.e., North America, UK, Switzerland, Europe and selected other markets where it has or can reach a competitive position. Founded in 1872, Zurich is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. It has offices in more than 60 countries employing approximately 70,000 people. In 2000, the Group achieved gross premiums of USD 50 billion. This amount includes insurance deposits as well as premiums from the Farmers P&C Group. The net income was USD 2.33 billion. On December 31, 2000, the Group had USD 440 billion of assets under management of which USD 259 billion represent funds managed for third-party institutional and retail customers
# # #
Media contacts:
Keith Owens
Zurich North America
(847) 762-7337
keith.owens@zurichna.com
Caroline Luz
Miller DeMartine Group
(203) 221-2790
cluz@mdgpr.com