019 The year 2007 ­ a review January The Group consolidates the areas of accounting, tax as well as purchasing, logistics and facility management, which used to be located in the Group com- panies, in AMB Generali Services. The storm "Kyrill" causes claims in the billions. In more than 120,000 cases our Group com- panies settle claims fast and with- out red tape. February Standard & Poor's (S&P) affirm the outstanding AA rating ("excellent") for the insur- ance companies of the AMB Generali Group. The classical Riester prod- uct of Generali ­ SELEKTA® ZulagenRente ­ is assigned a FFF rating by Franke & Bornberg. March Advocard Rechts- schutzversicherung and Deutscher Anwaltsverein, the German lawyers association, agree a cooperation within the scope of a recommendation part- nership. The AMB Generali Group announces its financial figures for the year 2006. In that busi- ness year the Group exceeded all growth and earnings targets. April Generali Lebensversiche- rung celebrates the 50th anniver- sary of its Frankfurt branch office where more than 100 corporate client specialists are successfully operating in corporate pension business. Central Krankenversicherung launches its new SalesService Centre in Cologne. The company thus concentrates all services for distribution partners with regard to proposal forms at one location. FLASHLIGHTS 2007 MANAGEMENT Chap. 1 019 Excellent service and benefits This Report illustrates right to the decimal point that our companies are achieving above-average success. But this success cannot only be measured in euro and cent. Independent testers have repeated- ly distinguished our companies. CosmosDirekt, for instance, received the special award for its particular customer focus from the St. Gallen University. A consulting firm assigned a "very good" to Central because 93 percent of interviewed customers were satisfied with the health insurer. Generali obtained twice the "Certificate in Gold" of a big reinsurance company for its exemplary activities in the field of in-job professional training. The certificate was assigned to Generali for its high qualification of employees in the fields of risk management and claims settlement under stand- alone occupational disability covers. Volksfürsorge obtained a "very good" from the product-testing foundation Stiftung Warentest for its supplementary occupational disability cover. The Constant Loan 24 of Badenia was the test winner in a comparison of the combination loans of 11 building societies made by Stiftung Warentest in 2007. And even the critical inspection agency TÜV has nothing to object: for the third consecutive time AachenMünchener received the coveted seal for excellent customer service. Stormy start to the year Whole stretches of forests devastated, motorways closed, rail traffic at a standstill: hurricane "Kyrill" left a path of destruction in its wake as it swept across the country at speeds of up to 200 km/h on January 18, 2007. The AMB Generali Group settled more than 120,000 storm claims amounting to a total of 105 m promptly and with minimum bureaucracy. >>