Northbridge Financial Announces Automatic Share Purchase Plan

TORONTO, ONTARIO, September 30 / MARKET WIRE/ --

Northbridge Financial Corporation (TSX: NB) today announced that it has established an automatic share purchase plan under which its broker, BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., may purchase common shares of Northbridge pursuant to Northbridge's previously announced normal course issuer bid. The plan defines a prearranged set of criteria in accordance with which the broker may make share purchases, but does not require that any shares be purchased, and there can be no assurance that any shares will be purchased. The plan will enable the purchase of Northbridge's common shares at any time, including when Northbridge would not ordinarily be active in the market because of internal trading blackout periods, insider trading rules or otherwise. All purchases will be made on the open market through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange in accordance with its requirements.

Northbridge is the largest commercial property and casualty insurance group in Canada, providing property, automobile, general liability and a wide range of other commercial insurance products to businesses primarily in Canada. Northbridge common shares are listed and traded under the symbol NB on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Visit Northbridge's website at www.norfin.com for more information.

Forward-Looking Information

Statements in this release about future plans, intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals, achievements or other future events constitute forward-looking statements. In some cases forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "may", "will", "should", "would", "could", "expects", "plans", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "predicts" or "potential" or the negative or other variations of these words, or other comparable words or phrases. Although Northbridge believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements or other future events. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors about Northbridge, the business environment in which it operates, the economy and the insurance industry generally that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed, implied or anticipated in such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to, the following factors which are more fully described in Northbridge's Annual Information Form and other filings with Canadian securities regulators (accessible on SEDAR - System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval - at www.sedar.com: the adequacy of claims reserves; unpredictable catastrophic events; the cyclical nature of the property and casualty insurance industry; competitive market environment; ability to alleviate risk through reinsurance coverage; credit risks associated with reinsurers and certain insureds; ability to achieve investment returns; subsidiaries' ability to maintain their financial strength ratings; changes in the business, economic and political environment; changes in government regulation; negative publicity regarding the insurance industry; litigation and regulatory actions; reliance on independent brokers and third parties to sell certain products; reliance on information technology and telecommunications systems; adequacy and effectiveness of risk management framework; dependence on operating management and key personnel; dependence on the financial performance of subsidiaries; uncertainties associated with critical accounting estimates; and foreign currency fluctuations. Northbridge is under no obligation and has no intention to update or alter any of its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contacts:
Northbridge Financial Corporation
Craig Pinnock
Chief Financial Officer
(416) 350-4300
(416) 350-4307 (FAX)
Website: www.norfin.com