RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Riding strong growth from its Richmond, Va.-based U.S. operations, global travel insurance and assistance company Mondial Assistance reports strong sales for 2008. For the year ending December 31, 2008, the company reports revenues of $2.251 billion (1.597 billion Euros) an increase of 8.6% over 2007 sales and a net profit of $87.4 million (62.6 million Euros), up 9.6% from the previous year.

One of the largest employers in the Richmond region with more than 700 associates, Mondial Assistance has offices in 28 countries. For 2008, its 9,817 worldwide employees handled a total of 13.5 million cases or an average of one case every two seconds. A case is either an assistance call or customer insurance claim.

"During a year in which the travel industry began to feel the effects of a down-turning economy, a climate that has had a significant impact on many travel-related businesses, we are particularly pleased at our performance throughout 2008," said Jon Ansell, president and chief executive officer. "We also take pride in the fact that our operations here at home experienced the highest percentage of growth of any sector throughout the company's worldwide operations. It is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our many talented associates."

Revenue in the United States grew by 18.5% over 2007. The U.S. also represents the company's second largest business unit. The strong financial results capped a year successes and milestones for the U.S. business unit, including:

• The significant step of adopting the global brand by changing the company's brand name from World Access (used in the U.S. only) to Mondial Assistance
• Retaining an A "Excellent" financial strength rating for its Jefferson Insurance Company subsidiary from independent rating agency A.M. Best
• Being named the winner of The International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) Membership's coveted Global Call Center of the Year Award in the large call center category
• Launching the new Cancel Anytime product for travel agents under the Access America travel insurance brand
• The innovative Event Ticket Protector product continued its strong growth, announcing partnerships with Ticketmaster, to add to existing relationships with TicketsNow, Tickets.com and International Speedway Corporation

Mondial Assistance has long been a pioneer in the U.S. travel insurance business. In fact, the company was the first in the U.S. to couple insurance with assistance services designed to help travelers with emergencies while away from home. Though the company is best known in the United States for its Access America^® travel insurance brand, over 100 million Americans rely on Mondial's assistance services each year, through "private label" partnerships with credit card issuers, health insurance plans, travel suppliers and event ticket vendors. From a simple restaurant reservation to a complex medical evacuation, Mondial Assistance can draw upon the skills of internal associates who speak 37 languages or its global network of 400,000 service providers to deliver help no matter where it is needed.

About Mondial Assistance:

Mondial Assistance is a global leader in specialty insurance and emergency assistance services. Four percent of the world's population or about 250 million people are served by Mondial Assistance businesses around the globe. In the United States, Mondial Assistance is a brand name of World Access Service Corp. As one of 29 business units, the U.S. operation serves major travel suppliers, health insurers, credit card, and entertainment companies with insurance products, international travel assistance, and concierge services. Mondial Assistance is part of the Allianz (NYSE:AZ) group of companies. For more information please visit: www.mondialUSA.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain of the statements contained herein may be statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. In addition to statements which are forward-looking by reason of context, the words "˜may, will, should, expects, plans, intends, anticipates, believes, estimates, predicts, potential, or continue' and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, without limitation, (i) general economic conditions, including in particular economic conditions in the Allianz Group's core business and core markets, (ii) performance of financial markets, including emerging markets, (iii) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, (iv) mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (v) persistency levels, (vi) the extent of credit defaults (vii) interest rate levels, (viii) currency exchange rates including the Euro-U.S. Dollar exchange rate, (ix) changing levels of competition, (x) changes in laws and regulations, including monetary convergence and the European Monetary Union, (xi) changes in the policies of central banks and/or foreign governments, (xii) the impact of acquisitions, including related integration issues, (xiii) reorganization measures and (xiv) general competitive factors, in each case on a local, regional, national and/or global basis. Many of these factors may be more likely to occur, or more pronounced, as a result of terrorist activities and their consequences. No duty to update. The company assumes no obligation to update any information contained herein.






for Mondial Assistance

Caroline Platt, 804-788-1414

Source: Mondial Assistance