Write-Downs

  • 1994 - FRB - Announcements of asset-quality problems and contagion effects in the life insurance industry, by George W. Fenn and Rebel A. Cole, First version August 1992, final version October 1993, Federal Reserve Board - 29p
  • AIG Securities Lending / Life Insurance - 50-55 Billion
    • mp3 interview - Dixie / 
  • <Contagion / Writedowns> - (p139) - 677 One analysis of the contagion effects on other insurers of announcements by First Executive in January 1990 of a write-down in its bond portfolio, and by Travelers in October 1990 of losses on its CRE portfolio, concluded that “the primary significance of the write-down announcements to the market was their anticipated effect on policyholders’ behavior [at other insurers].”
    • George Fenn and Rebel Cole, “Announcements of Asset-Quality Problems and Contagion Effects in the Life Insurance Industry,” Journal of Financial Economics volume 35, issue 2 (1994).  

Documents 85-2 and 85-3 - 2015 0930 - MetLife v FSOC - 15-CV-45 - Documents 85-2 and 85-3 - 387p

  • “American International Group Inc plans to absorb losses for a dozen insurance units after their securities lending accounts suffered $13 billion of write downs tied to the subprime mortgage collapse during the past year.
    • The world’s largest insurer will absorb as much as US$5 billion of any losses on sales of investments, up from a previous commitment of US $500 million, said Christopher Swift, vice-president for life and retirement services.
    • AIG will also inject an undisclosed amount of capital into some of the subsidiaries, he said.
  • ⊗ Moody’s Investors Services and AM Best Co. both cited the write downs in May when they downgraded New York based AIG’s credit ratings.
  • State regulators in Texas said they didn’t know AIG was investing cash collateral from the securities lending business in subprime-linked assets and were concerned the insurance units hadn’t put aside enough capital to cover potential losses.

2008 0627 - Bloomberg - AIG to Absorb $5 Billion Loss on Securities Lending: Insurance Units Wrote Down $13B Tied To Mortgages, by Miles Weiss  ---  [BonkNote]