OCAS Ohio Casualty (MM)

Ohio Casualty Corporation (NASDAQ:OCAS) today announced that effective July 26, 2006, Standard & Poor's (S&P) Rating Services raised its counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on the members of the Ohio Casualty Insurance Co. Intercompany Pool (OCIP) to 'A-' from 'BBB+'. The outlook is stable. At the same time, S&P raised its counterparty credit and senior debt ratings on Ohio Casualty Corp. (Ohio Casualty), to 'BBB-' from 'BB+'. This action results in Ohio Casualty being rated as an investment grade security by four rating agencies, including A.M. Best Company, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch, as well as Standard & Poor's. Ohio Casualty Corporation Chief Executive Officer Dan Carmichael expressed Ohio Casualty's pleasure with the upgrade: "This action confirms what we already believed: that Ohio Casualty is an investment grade company. We view the action as a solid signal for investors that our company is secure and that we are successfully executing our strategy to become a premier, top quality insurance company. We continue to face our challenges through a disciplined long-term approach to balancing expense control with profitably growing our business in order to maintain superior service to independent agents and policyholders." Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of Ratings Direct, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Credit Ratings in the left navigation bar, select Find a Rating, then Credit Ratings Search. Corporate Profile Ohio Casualty Corporation is the holding company of The Ohio Casualty Insurance Company, which is one of six property-casualty insurance companies that make up Ohio Casualty Group, collectively referred to as Consolidated Corporation. The Ohio Casualty Insurance Company was founded in 1919 and is licensed in 49 states. Ohio Casualty Group is ranked 50th among U.S. property/casualty insurance groups based on net premiums written (Best's Review, July 2006). The Group's member companies write auto, home and business insurance. Ohio Casualty Corporation trades on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol OCAS and had assets of approximately $5.7 billion as of June 30, 2006. Safe Harbor Statement Ohio Casualty Corporation publishes forward-looking statements relating to such matters as anticipated financial performance, business prospects and plans, regulatory developments and similar matters. The statements contained in this news release that are not historical information, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The operations, performance and development of the Consolidated Corporation's business are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in or supported by the forward-looking statements in this release. The risks and uncertainties that may affect the operations, performance, development and results of the Consolidated Corporation's business include the following: changes in property and casualty reserves; catastrophe losses; premium and investment growth; product pricing environment; availability of credit; changes in government regulation; performance of financial markets; fluctuations in interest rates; availability and pricing of reinsurance; litigation and administrative proceedings; rating agency actions; acts of war and terrorist activities; ability to appoint and/or retain agents; ability to achieve targeted expense savings; ability to achieve premium targets and profitability goals; and general economic and market conditions. Ohio Casualty Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking statements contained in this release, or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Investors are also advised to consult any further disclosures made on related subjects in Ohio Casualty Corporation's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission or in subsequent press releases.