FRANKFURT (Standard&Poor's) April 8, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today it assigned its 'A+' long-term senior unsecured debt rating to the dual-tranche €1.4 billion fixed-rate senior notes to be issued by Zurich Finance (USA) Inc. under Switzerland-based Zurich Insurance Co.'s (ZIC; AA-/Negative/A-1+) $10 billion Euro Medium-Term Note program. ZIC is the main core operating entity of the Zurich Financial Services group and will provide an irrevocable unconditional guarantee for these notes. The 'A+' rating on the notes, which is one notch below the counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on ZIC, reflects the structural subordination of senior creditors to ZIC's primary insurance policyholders. Including this transaction, we estimate that the group's financial leverage (debt divided by
