Kenneth W. Stecher, president and chief executive officer, commented, "Cincinnati Financial stayed focused and disciplined in the second quarter, making progress against continuing headwinds of industry, economic and literal storms. The second quarter brought reasonable premium growth, a narrower underwriting loss and solid growth of investment income over last year's low point. Our position and results as of June 30 showed that we are poised for improved results in our insurance operations, independent of the still-awaited turn in the commercial insurance marketplace. We believe that our strategic initiatives are beginning to produce benefits that will multiply over the coming months and years."

"Net written premiums from property casualty operations rose 4 percent over the year-ago second quarter. We have looked beyond our largest book of business in standard commercial lines for additional growth opportunities, finding them by expanding personal lines and adding excess and surplus lines. These two areas together accounted for nearly three-quarters of our second-quarter written premium growth, including strong new business.

"In commercial lines, our retention rate on renewal policies continues at a very satisfactory level while we are writing less new business, including fewer larger accounts that tend to be underpriced due to competition. As planned, agents in our newer commercial states - Texas, Colorado and Wyoming - increased six-month new business premiums by $11 million, partially offsetting declines in established states. We are approximately halfway to our 2010 goal of appointing 65 new agencies that in total write more than $1 billion of annual property casualty premium with all carriers. Second-half 2010 appointments will include our first agencies in Connecticut and Oregon. As new agency relationships mature, we work to become their No. 1 or No. 2 carrier, typically writing about 10 percent of total agency premium volume within 10 years. With expansion to states outside of the Midwest and South, we also expect growth of our market share within these new agencies to support geographical diversification, reducing volatility of financial results from catastrophes."

"While we are never satisfied with a combined ratio over 100 percent, the second-quarter ratio improved 9 percentage points compared with the year-ago ratio. This year's second-quarter combined ratio benefited from lower catastrophe losses and higher favorable development of reserves. Eliminating those impacts and compared with full-year 2009, the accident-year combined ratio excluding catastrophes is fairly stable in 2010 for our commericial lines segment and improved for our personal lines segment. We believe this slightly better underlying profitability is an early indication of more precise pricing and risk selection we are just beginning to experience through our limited but steadily increasing use of predictive modeling tools in both commercial and personal lines.

As of the June 30, we are using these tools to increase our ability to target high quality risks in our homeowner and workers' compensation lines of business. We will begin use for commercial and personal auto lines before year-end and will ultimately develop tools for all major commercial lines. We expect to continue gaining new advantages from our broader use of technology, including recently introduced policy administration systems that bring efficiencies for our company and our agents and online tools that give policyholders new ways to receive service. In addition to making it easier to process our policies, our new commercial lines system, now available in 21 states with nine more to launch this year, adds billing and payment options that help attract business from our agents."

"On the investment side of our operations, we continue to position our portfolio with consideration to both the challenges presented by the current low rate environment and the risks presented by potential future inflation. As bonds in our generally laddered portfolio mature over the near term, we will be challenged to replace their current yield and continue our trend of improving investment income. While our large bond portfolio more than covers our insurance reserve liabilities, we believe one of our best opportunities for long-term growth and profits is our diversified common stock portfolio of mainly blue chip, dividend-paying companies, accounting for 24 percent of invested assets at June 30.

"Overall, our capital and liquidity continued to be very strong at June 30, 2010. Our more than $1 billion of cash and marketable securities at the parent company level would be sufficient to cover all of our corporate debt while preserving our insurance subsidiaries' very strong surplus and capacity for growth.

"For the first time since April 2009, we used capital to repurchase some of our own shares during the second quarter. As in the past, we were opportunistic, buying shares for a total of $10 million at an average price well below book value. Over 8 million shares remain available per the board's authorization, which does not specify an expiration date. We tend to use repurchases to support shareholder value by offsetting dilution from stock compensation granted to our associates and directors. The second-quarter repurchases benefited book value per share slightly, although total book value fell short of year-end 2009, reflecting fluctuation of common stock values in our equity portfolio on June 30.

Stecher concluded, "Our property casualty insurance group was named in July to the Ward's 50, a list of insurers that excel at balancing financial strength with superior performance over a five-year period. Our group is one of only five insurers named to the Ward's 50 every year since inception of the list 20 years ago. With support from our loyal shareholders, agents, policyholders and associates, we will continue managing our capital to build value that endures over time."

For additional information or to to hear a replay of the July 29 conference call webcast, please visit www.cinfin.com/investors.

(See attached tables for 2010 reconciliations; prior-period reconciliations available at www.cinfin.com/investors.)

Cincinnati Financial Corporation prepares its public financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP). Statutory data is prepared in accordance with statutory accounting rules as defined by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) Accounting Practices and Procedures Manual and therefore is not reconciled to GAAP data.

Management uses certain non-GAAP and non-statutory financial measures to evaluate its primary business areas - property casualty insurance, life insurance and investments. Management uses these measures when analyzing both GAAP and non-GAAP measures to improve its understanding of trends in the underlying business and to help avoid incorrect or misleading assumptions and conclusions about the success or failure of company strategies. Management adjustments to GAAP measures generally: apply to non-recurring events that are unrelated to business performance and distort short-term results; involve values that fluctuate based on events outside of management's control; or relate to accounting refinements that affect comparability between periods, creating a need to analyze data on the same basis.