LONDON, 06 October 2006 – Aon Limited’s Risk Management Solutions division launched an innovative Security Insurance offering today that allows companies to fund major business initiatives while providing long-term financial security to third parties.

The new offering provides solutions for pension deficits, decommissioning and environmental liabilities, surety and performance bond obligations and fronting insurer security requirements. These new Security Insurance products allow companies to release capital and debt for deployment in their business where they can generate a better return on investment.

Conventional financial security products, such as letters of credit, guarantee payment of a company’s financial obligations to a third party.  They provide protection to the third party in the event that a company defaults on its obligations as a result of insolvency or other unforeseen event.  However, traditional products can impose restrictions on the company’s finances and operations:

• Limiting the availability of cash to the company: security providers require either that the security is fully collateralised, i.e. the company places cash on deposit to cover the full amount of security provided, or that it is treated as utilisation of the company’s line of credit.  In either case the availability of cash to the company is restricted by an amount at least equivalent to the level of security.
• Containing the company’s growth plans: company lines of credit, the amount of capacity available in traditional marketplaces, e.g. banks and insurers, and restrictions on the duration of security imposed by the security providers all limit the total amount of security that companies are able to provide to third parties to support large financial obligations.  This can prevent companies from expanding their operations into new areas and from undertaking large-scale projects.

Aon’s new Security Insurance provides significant benefits to companies by overcoming these restrictions:

• Frees up cash for investment in the business by providing financial security in a way that does not require the company to post collateral or use its credit facilities.
• Assists corporate expansion by providing transformational capacity running into £100s of millions for single company risks.
• Supports companies undertaking long-term financial liabilities and obligations by providing fixed rate terms of up to ten years and even beyond.

Paul Campbell, Head of Product Development at Risk Management Solutions, commented: “This solution is primarily aimed at public companies burdened by large and prohibitive financial security arrangements in excess of £25m in the aggregate.  It is based on the need of our clients to free up capital that they can then use to fund other business initiatives such as acquisitions or new projects, while providing long-term guarantees that they will meet sizeable obligations in the future.

Ken MacDonald, CEO of Risk Management Solutions, said: “This demonstrates how Aon is working with its clients to develop innovative solutions to complex risk problems.”

Notes to editor:

About Aon

Aon Corporation is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. There are 46,000 employees working in Aon's 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions.

This press release contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include: general economic conditions in different countries in which we do business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed income markets that could affect the return on invested assets, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans, changes in the competitive environment, our ability to implement restructuring initiatives and other initiatives intended to yield cost savings, our ability to execute the stock repurchase program, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of investigations brought by state attorneys general, state insurance regulators, federal prosecutors, and federal regulators, the impact of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, and ERISA class actions, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company’s financial results, is contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.