Some three years ago AIG became a household name on account of the antics of AIG Financial Products — antics that were most inconveniently overlooked by a senior management seemingly incapable of understanding what was going on there, regulators who were equally incapable of doing so, and derivatives market counterparties who should have understood what was going on, but apparently found it amusing to pass the buck all the way to the edge of the precipice only to be made whole  by the sanctity of contract under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Since then, AIG has rebranded a number … Continue Reading →

In July 2011 Aite Group had the opportunity to sit with Maurice R. Greenberg — chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co. Inc. and the Starr Companies. — and discuss with him topics of concern to the insurance industry and the financial community. What follows is a transcript of the conversation, which touches on topics such as building a culture of underwriting, perceiving and responding to future risks, and doing business in China. The discussion should be of interest to a broad range of participants in the worldwide insurance industry. Aite Group: Let’s talk in a forward-looking way about … Continue Reading →

In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this week, Maurice Greenberg, former CEO of AIG, stated that selling off units of AIG was weakening the firm, and that the sale of Nan Shan in particular, wasn’t a good idea. Greenberg knows AIG better than anyone, and may well be right in the long run. But the perceived motivation for the Nan Shan deal, AIG’s desire to “pay off the government,” is incorrect.  The proceeds of the firm’s sale of ALICO to MetLife and its IPO of Hong Kong-based AIA have sufficed to pay down the outstanding credit line owed to the New … Continue Reading →