AIG - Media
- 2023 0728 - TheStreet - What Happened to AIG? Did It Get a Bailout? - The world’s largest insurance company received an astounding $180 billion from the U.S. government during the financial crisis of 2007–2008, by Laura Rodini - [link]
2008
- 2008 0513 - NYT - Maurice Greenberg tells Board that AIG is in 'Crisis' - [link]
- "Several top shareholders of AIG have called me expressing deep concern about the persistent and seemingly endless destruction of value at AIG," Greenberg said in the letter, which was dated May 11. A copy was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
- [Bonk: Letter - May 11 - [link]]
- 2008 0523 - Reuters - UPDATE 1-Moody's cuts AIG rating; shares fall - [link]
- 2008 0627 - Reuters - AIG To Lose Up To $5 Billion From Investments: Report - [link]
- 2008 0627 - Bloomberg News - AIG Poised to Absorb $5 Billion Losses From Securities-Lending, Miles Weiss - <WishList>
- 2008 0628 - Bloomberg News - AIG to Absorb US $5B Losses on Securities Lending: Insurance Units Wrote Down $13B Tied To Mortgages - 28 June 2008) - Martin Weiss - <WishList>
- 2008 0915 - FT (Financial Times - Downgrades deepen AIG woes - [link]
- 2008 0915 - WSJ - S&P Downgrades AIG, Citing ‘Reduced Flexibility’- [link]
- All of these ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were placed on Sept. 12, 2008.
- 2008 0916 - NYT - Fed’s $85 Billion Loan Rescues Insurer, by By Edmund L. Andrews, Michael J. de la Merced and Mary Williams Walsh - [link]
- 2008 0916 - WSJ - U.S. to Take Over AIG in $85 Billion Bailout; Central Banks Inject Cash as Credit Dries Up - Emergency Loan Effectively Gives Government Control of Insurer - [link]
- 2008 0916 (3:30pm) - AIG / FRB ? - Email from Larry Nath Regarding Speaking To The Fed Possible AIG Bankruptcy - 1p
- 2008 0916 - Reuters - Worried Singaporeans Rush to Redeem AIG Policies - [link]
- 2008 0916 - Time Magazine - Why the Government Wouldn't Let AIG Fail, By Justin Fox - [link]
- 2008 0917 - Business Recorder - Hundreds of AIG Policyholders Throng Asian Offices, Agence France Presse [link]
- 2010 0610 - COP - Report - The AIG Rescue, Its Impact on Markets, and the Government’s Exit Strategy - 337p
- 2008 0917 - Time Magazine - AIG Bailout Spooks Customers Around the World - [link]
- 2008 0917 - WSJ - Throwing a Lifeline to a Troubled Giant, Andrew Ross Sorkin - 6p
- “The threat of bankruptcy was a real threat,” Mr. Dinallo said. The government began to fear that the collapse of A.I.G. would lead to devastating losses across the financial industry.
- Among the points highlighted for lawmakers was that A.I.G. was one of the 10 most widely held stocks in 401(k) retirement plans, and that its collapse could potentially cause an enormous run on mutual funds.
- Or as Mr. Schumer explained after the meeting: “If A.I.G. went down, it would affect Main Street more than Wall Street.”
- 2008 0918 - Taiwan News - AIG's roots run deep in Asia Asian subsidiaries try to calm fears in founding region and vital market - [link]
- People queue outside an AIA office in Singapore's main business district yesterday. AIA is a subsidiary of American Insurance Group. - Picture
- 2008 0918 - WSJ - Bad Bets and Cash Crunch Pushed Ailing AIG to Brink - [link]
- On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told bankers considering financing for AIG that government officials "don't have a clear sense of how big the problem is."
- 2008 0921 - WSJ - Protections for AIG Policyholders - [link]
- AIG's insurance subsidiaries "did not receive a bailout; they are financially solvent," Sandy Praeger, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said in a statement last week.
- "Typically the new insurer will provide all of the protection that would have been provided under the old policy," he says.
- But it is possible in some situations that people with life-insurance policies worth more than the state limits may find they're on the hook for a higher premium or a reduced death benefit, Mr. Gallanis says. (NOHLGA - National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations)
- 2008 0924 - propertycasualty360.com - NAIC Members: AIG Mess Is Not Our Fault, By James Connolly - [link]
- The nation's insurance commissioners meeting here asserted that state regulation has ensured the solvency of carriers including insurance subsidiaries of financially challenged American International
- AIG has raised the concerns of many insurance consumers. Mr. Dinallo said that in the first two days following the AIG crisis, his department received over 1,000 calls concerning AIG contracts.
- 2008 0926 - WSJ - AIG's Problem Is Not Insurance Regulation by States, by Sandy Praeger, Kansas Insurance Commissioner / President - National Association of Insurance Commissioners - [link]
- 2008 1003 - NYT - A.I.G. Uses $61 Billion of Fed Loan - [link]
- 2008 1006 - InsuranceJournal - State Regulators Blast Federal Regulation Advocates Over AIG - [link]
- The state regulators spoke out at their annual meeting in Maryland last month in response to a Wall Street Journal opinion article authored by four members of Congress who support a federal charter for insurers: U.S. Senators John Sununu, R-N.H., and Tim Johnson, D-N.D., and House members, Reps. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., and Ed Royce, R-Calif.
- 2008 0923 - WSJ - Insurance Companies Need a Federal Regulator, by J, , and Ed Royce - [link]
- “The government didn’t bail out an insurance company,” said (Roger) Sevigny. “There weren’t any insurance company subsidiaries of AIG in trouble. The government bailed out AIG and its financial holdings.”
- The state regulators spoke out at their annual meeting in Maryland last month in response to a Wall Street Journal opinion article authored by four members of Congress who support a federal charter for insurers: U.S. Senators John Sununu, R-N.H., and Tim Johnson, D-N.D., and House members, Reps. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., and Ed Royce, R-Calif.
- 2008 1008 - WSJ - AIG Increases Borrowings While Racing to Sell Assets - [link]
- Securities Lending
- 2009 0305 - GOV - Perspectives on Systemic Risk
- 2009 1009 - WSJ - AIG Bailout Hit by New Cash Woes Fed Moves to Widen Available Loans to Near $123 Billion, By Liam Pleven, Sudeep Reddy and Carrick Mollenkamp - [link]
- 2008 1010 - WSJ - Further Loan To AIG Shows Fed Miscalculated Risks, By Liam Pleven, Carrick Mollenkamp and Craig Karmin - 2p
- 2008 1012 - FT - AIG Continues Lobbying Despite Bail-Out -
- 2008 1028 - WSJ - U.S. Mulls Widening Bailout to Insurers, By Deborah Solomon and Leslie Scism - [link]
- 2008 1030 - WSJ - Securities-Lending Sector Feels Credit Squeeze, Karmin and Scism - <WishList>
- 2008 1030 - Reuters - AIG units to participate in commercial paper program - [link]
- AIG Funding Inc, International Lease Finance Corporation, Curzon Funding LLC and Nightingale Finance LLC may issue up to $20.9 billion of commercial paper under the New York Fed’s program.
- 2008 1223 - CNN /Fortune-?- AIG's rescue has a long way to go. When will the government's costly bailout of the deeply distressed insurance giant be over? Don't expect it to be anytime soon, by Carol J. Loomis - [link]
- 2008 1223 - CNN / Fortune-? - AIG's rescue has a long way to go, by Carol Loomis - 9p
2009
- 2009 0119 - Fortune - AIG: The Company That Came To Dinner, by Carol J. Loomis— A Fortune Profile, VOL. 159 - [lnsuranceNewsNet-link]
- "kill list." It was created by AIG's controller, David Herzog
- 2009 0205 - businessinsider - How AIG Lost Billions By Helping Short-Sellers, by John Carney - [link]
- 2009 0205 - WSJ - An AIG Unit's Quest to Juice Profit, A close look at the 2,000-employee AIG Investments unit shows how this part of the conglomerate made gambles that helped cripple the firm, by Serena Ng and Liam Pleven - [link]
- <Find> - 2009 0224 - GOV (Senate) - FEDERAL RESERVE'S FIRST MONETARY POLICY REPORT FOR 2009.
- (p79) - According to today's WSJ, AIG is seeking an overhaul of its $150 billion government bailout package that would substantially reduce the insurer's financial burden, while further exposing U.S. taxpayers to its fortunes.
- Are you and Treasury considering changing our approach to AIG from that of a creditor to one of a potential owner?
- 2009 0301 - NYT - U.S. Is Said to Offer Another $30 Billion in Funds to A.I.G., by Andrew Ross Sorkin and Mary Williams Walsh - [link]
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2009 0302 - NYT - The Case for Saving A.I.G., aka The Case for a Giant, by a Giant by Andrew Sorkin - [link]
- 2009 0303 - NYT - Fed Chief Says Insurance Giant Acted Irresponsibly - [link]
- Ben Bernanke (FRB) - "This was a hedge fund, basically, that was attached to a large and stable insurance company.” - Bolted On
- 2009 0305 - NYT - U.S. senators attempt to fix blame for AIG's collapse - [link]
- "AIG Financial Products is not a licensed insurance company," Dinallo said. "It was not regulated by New York State or any other state."
- But Senator Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican on the committee, repeatedly needled Dinallo. "Are you trying to evade your responsibility?" Shelby asked. "You can claim here today that you have little responsibility, if any, for all these problems?"
- Dinallo argued that AIG's securities lending unit had only minor losses and would have been successfully wound down had the insurance giant not suffered so many losses stemming from its credit default swap positions.
- 2009 0305 - GOV (Senate) - American International Group: Examining What Went Wrong, Government Intervention, And Implications for Future Regulation - aka Government Intervention and Regulation of AIG - [PDF-72p, VIDEO-CSPAN]
- 2009 0305 - WSJ - AIG's Black Box The fourth rescue is not a charm, <Author??> - [link]
- Have Fed and Treasury staff, with their copious amounts of free time, studied state and international insurance regulatory schemes and deemed them inadequate?
- If the argument is that an AIG failure would deprive customers of needed insurance products, this seems to be even more of a stretch.
- 2009 0317 - NewsWeek - Hirsh: The Next AIG Scandal?, by Michael Hirsh - [link]
- 2009 0327 - The Philadelphia Inquirer - Congressman wants AIG leaders jailed (Alan Grayson (US House-(D-FL)) -
- 2009 0327 - WSJ - Top Risk Officers Remain at AIG's Helm - The group inside AIG that oversaw some of the company's biggest bets remains largely unchanged even after the $173 billion government bailout. by Liam Pleven - [link]
- 2009 0402 - businessinsider - AIG: "A Ponzi Scheme Plain And Simple", by Joe Weisenthal - [link]
- 2009 0517 - businessinsider.com - Was AIG Cooked Long Before Joe Cassano?, by Joe Weisenthal - [link]
- ... slowly hints at the idea that Cassano is really a fall guy.
- In 2001, when independent analysts working for The Economist magazine questioned the company's rich valuation, they were met with legal threats from the company.
- 2009 0522 - Court House News - Financial Planner Says AIG Is Lying - [link]
- 2009 0613 - Sandiego Reader - Why Haven't State Regulators Gone After AIG?, by Don Bauder - [link]
- 2009 0730 - NYT - After Rescue, New Weakness Seen at A.I.G., by Mary Williams Walsh - [link]
- Dear Colleague Letter - Bean, Royce
- 2009 0731 - NAIC to NYT - re: The New York Times July 30 article, “After Rescue, New Weakness Seen at A.I.G” by Mary Williams Walsh - 1p
- 2009 1123 - WSJ - AIG and Systemic Risk: Geithner says credit-default swaps weren't the problem, after all, by ? - [link]
- 2009 1127 - WSJ - Lack of Candor and the AIG Bailout: If AIG wasn't too big to fail, why did the government rescue it? And why do we need to turn the financial system upside down?, by Peter Wallison - [link]
2010s
- 2010 0131 - WSJ - Risky Trading Wasn’t Just on the Fringe at A.I.G., By Mary Williams Walsh - [link]
- CDS, ALICO, Christopher Swift, Life Insurance Companies
- “You have this blind spot on insurance companies,” said Christopher Whalen, a co-founder of Institutional Risk Analytics, a research firm.
- The National Association of Insurance Commissioners says insurers were the third-biggest issuers of credit-default swaps, after banks and hedge funds, with 18 percent of the market in 2007.
- 2010 0202 - WSJ - Eric Dinallo - What I Learned at the AIG Meltdown: State Insurance Regulation Wasn’t the Problem - [link]
- If AIG had gone bankrupt, state regulators would have seized the individual insurance companies.
- So it's true that AIG's insurance policyholders would have been protected and an AIG bankruptcy would have been bad for those same policyholders and the insurance industry.
- 2010 0609 - therealnews.com - Did Bush Officials Hide Depths of AIG Problems?, by Greg Gordon - [link]
- <WishList> - A McClatchy analysis of the finances of 20 of AIG’s larger insurance subsidiaries at the time has found a much bleaker picture, however:
- 2010 0609 - McClatchy - AIG's problems far greater than Bush officials told public, Greg Gordon - [link]
- 2010 0701 - businessinsider - Actually, It Might Be All Win Neuger's Fault AIG Collapsed, Not Goldman Sach's - [link]
- 2010 1001 (Updated) - Policyholders Safe, Say States. AIG Won't Need to Tap Insurance Units for Funds; Still, 'It's an Involved Plan', By Leslie Scism - [link]
- 2010 0629 - LC - Transatlantic vs AIG - Affirmation of Anthony J. Albanese - 116p
- 78. AIG Investments senior executive and then-AIG Chief Investment Officer Win Neuger was instrumental in the decision.
- As reported by the Wall Street Journal on February 5, 2009, "Mr. Neuger and Kevin McGinn, who has been AIG's chief credit officer since 2004, signed off on the proposal, agreeing in a memo that the guidelines didn't subject the [Program] portfolio to undue risk."
- 2010 0728 - StreetInsider - SEC Becomes a Black Box with New FinReg Bill - 1p
- 2010 0910 - WSJ - 'Systemic Risk' Stonewall: Some bailout questions the Fed still hasn't answered - [link] --- [BonkNote]
- 2010 1201 - WSJ - Fresh Details on the Fed Rescue of A.I.G.’s Insurance Units, by Mary Williams Walsh - [link]
- Insurance assets are held to secure policyholders’ claims and are not supposed to be encumbered or pledged.
- At one point, the A.I.G. Annuity Insurance Company, of Texas, had more than $10 billion of its assets under Fed control, the new records show. That subsidiary is now known as Western National.
- Insurance assets are held to secure policyholders’ claims and are not supposed to be encumbered or pledged.
- 2012 0213 - ThinkAdvisor - Fallout, By Arthur D. Postal - [link]
- AIG’s defenders have long asserted that the company’s troubles were not insurance-based; they were the work of what amounted to a rogue financial products office in London that vastly overextended its reach on trafficking toxic debt.
- The fundamentals of the company, or so the conventional wisdom goes, were solid, especially on its insurance operations.
- ... the conventional wisdom on AIG is wrong.
- AIG’s defenders have long asserted that the company’s troubles were not insurance-based; they were the work of what amounted to a rogue financial products office in London that vastly overextended its reach on trafficking toxic debt.
- 2014 0117 (Updated) - WSJ - Request to SEC for AIG Files Nets Heavily Redacted Documents Regulator Keeps Details—and Much More—Secret Despite Request for Info on AIG Probe, By Jean Eaglesham - [link]
- 2018 0308 - WSJ - The Raid on AIG’s Equity Was Illegal - [link]
- <WishList - AIG - Media>
- <WishList> - AIG's stumbles sack domestic life industry in Q1, SNL's statutory data shows, Zawack, Tim., The SNL Insurance Daily; Charlottesville (Jun 02, 2008). - [link]