Federal regulators, in rushing to rescue AIG last year, failed to use their clout to negotiate concessions from business partners of the troubled insurer, a bailout overseer said on Monday.
AIG Chief Executive Robert Benmosche told his staff on Wednesday that he is "frustrated" with ongoing discussions with the government about bonuses, but he will remain with the company.
AIG reported its second profitable quarter in a row early Friday, as stabilization in its insurance businesses, and the credit and mortgage markets helped boost results.
Generosity doesn't make bonuses smaller. Some critics of huge bank payouts apparently would go easier on recipients who give a chunk of their winnings to charity.
Congress is resurfacing its outrage over AIG's bonuses after a report detailed the vast scope and scale of the troubled insurer's executive compensation plan.
The Treasury Department, after missing an opportunity to rein in controversial bonuses to AIG employees last year, is now pressing the bailed out insurer to reduce a $198 million bonus pool, according to an overseer's report released Tuesday.
What to do with Wall Street's gluttonous gatekeepers?
Since being named AIG's chief executive in August, Robert Benmosche's brashness has unnerved board members and raised the ire of Congress.
AIG has stabilized thanks to a massive government bailout, but more than $120 billion in taxpayer loans to the insurance company remain at risk, according to a report issued Monday by a bailout overseer.
It may have been the shortest tenure as CEO of AIG when Bob Willumstad led the insurance giant during the summer of 2008, but oh, what a long three months those were.
Federal regulators, in rushing to rescue AIG last year, failed to use their clout to negotiate concessions from business partners of the troubled insurer, a bailout overseer said on Monday.
AIG Chief Executive Robert Benmosche told his staff on Wednesday that he is "frustrated" with ongoing discussions with the government about bonuses, but he will remain with the company.
AIG reported its second profitable quarter in a row early Friday, as stabilization in its insurance businesses, and the credit and mortgage markets helped boost results.
Generosity doesn't make bonuses smaller. Some critics of huge bank payouts apparently would go easier on recipients who give a chunk of their winnings to charity.
Congress is resurfacing its outrage over AIG's bonuses after a report detailed the vast scope and scale of the troubled insurer's executive compensation plan.
The Treasury Department, after missing an opportunity to rein in controversial bonuses to AIG employees last year, is now pressing the bailed out insurer to reduce a $198 million bonus pool, according to an overseer's report released Tuesday.
What to do with Wall Street's gluttonous gatekeepers?
Since being named AIG's chief executive in August, Robert Benmosche's brashness has unnerved board members and raised the ire of Congress.
AIG has stabilized thanks to a massive government bailout, but more than $120 billion in taxpayer loans to the insurance company remain at risk, according to a report issued Monday by a bailout overseer.
It may have been the shortest tenure as CEO of AIG when Bob Willumstad led the insurance giant during the summer of 2008, but oh, what a long three months those were.
Almost a year after it nearly collapsed, American International Group has only just found a chief executive who might stick around for a while. It has been a slow start to a marathon that began when Lehman Brothers went bust in September last year.
The market keeps chugging along. But with speculative stocks like AIG and Vonage leading the way, you have to wonder if the rally won't soon go off the rails like Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train. Ay-Ay-Ay!
AIG's stock closed at $47.84 on Thursday. At the start of the month, shares were trading at a mere $13.14.
Banks are still failing left and right, and according to a recent survey of top financial services leaders, a big majority of bank executives think that a recovery in their industry will lag an overall economic rebound.
Shares of AIG jumped as much as 31% Thursday after newly appointed CEO Robert Benmosche said he was optimistic about returning the troubled insurer to its former glory.
AIG's new boss will make an annual salary of $3 million and receive bonuses and stock options worth millions more, according to a company filing on Monday.
AIG may have reported its first quarterly profit in nearly two years on Friday, but the company still has a long way to go before it can repay the billions of dollars it owes U.S. taxpayers.
Less than a year after it nearly brought down the financial system with a misguided derivatives bet, AIG is everyone's favorite lottery ticket.
Troubled insurer AIG did not pay $2.4 million in bonuses scheduled to be delivered to top executives on July 15, according to a Treasury official nominee.
Lawmakers are quickly learning that "too big to fail" may be too complex to legislate away.
Maybe AIU sounded too much like AIG.
Bailed-out insurer AIG again found itself in the crosshairs of bonus rage on Friday over its plans to pay $2.4 million in executive bonuses next week.
AIG shareholders, a.k.a. U.S. taxpayers, ousted the majority of the company's leadership at AIG's annual shareholders meeting Tuesday, removing the overseers of one of the biggest corporate unravelings in American history.
AIG is expected to formally install its new board on Tuesday, when the company holds its first annual shareholders meeting since U.S. taxpayers were given majority control.
Since it is chillingly clear that U.S. financial institutions have for a good while been regulated no more stringently than, say, demolition derby drivers, Washington has belatedly locked the garage door and begun to debate strict new rules. The blueprint at hand is President Obama's sweeping proposal in mid-June to revamp the responsibilities of government agencies and impose new regulations on the financial establishment. Nothing about this plan will fall easily into place: Too many government agencies will dig in their heels. Too many financial companies will battle every aspect of reform that threatens their bottom lines.
The government bailout of banks, lenders, Bear Stearns and AIG brought in billions of dollars to the Federal Reserve in the first quarter of 2009.
Manchester United will soon shed the AIG logo, the British soccer team announced Wednesday, officially ending its association with the fallen insurance giant next year.
AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy announced Thursday that he plans to step down from the company once the insurer's board of directors finds a replacement.
The furor over AIG's controversial bonuses is boiling over again.
AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy will appear before a House committee Wednesday to lay out the company's plan for paying back billions of taxpayer dollars.
Embattled insurer AIG reported its sixth-consecutive quarterly loss on Thursday, but the $4.4 billion loss narrowed sharply from the previous quarter's record-setting loss.
Let's take a look at the other side of the witch hunt for executives who received bonuses from AIG.
AIG made the first big dent Thursday in its mountain of IOUs to taxpayers.
Welcome to my first mailbag. I've shortened and edited most of these questions for clarity, and I'm identifying the authors by initials or the screen names they used.
The American International Group debacle could be setting President Barack Obama up for trouble, should his administration try to move forward with additional bailouts.
The derivatives traders that hit the jackpot with last fall's AIG bailout are getting more attention from the government.
We the people got what we wanted. Most of the top executives at AIG's financial products arm have agreed to pay back their bonuses. So, too, have many of the derivative business' rank and file employees.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner called for new rules Thursday that would allow regulators to police the darkest corners of the financial markets, including big hedge funds and derivatives trading.
The public uproar over the retention payments that American International Group made to the employees of its Financial Products (FP) division has drowned out all other revelations about the huge, government-controlled insurer. But certain new facts and assertions that have emerged in the company's 10-K and recent hearings seem worth more attention than national outrage has permitted.
Technology and bank shares led a selloff Tuesday, as investors stepped back after the previous session's big rally, Wall Street's best in four months.
It seems cash-strapped states didn't make out quite as well in the AIG bailout as the troubled insurer initially claimed.
Outrage over bonuses AIG paid to top executives after having received more than $170 billion in taxpayer-funded assistance eclipsed President Obama's ninth week in office.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner proposed tough new rules Tuesday, saying they could prevent another AIG debacle.
The officials managing the bailout of AIG, facing an onslaught of questions from angry lawmakers Tuesday, said the government had no choice but to effectively seize control of the troubled insurer last September and asked for more power to prevent a similar collapse in the future.
Last week's angry-mob-with-pitchforks approach to bonuses paid by AIG is giving way to a more pragmatic approach this week as lawmakers and investors weigh the potential risks of the proposals before them.
The populist wave that swept Capitol Hill last week against controversial bonuses paid to AIG executives stalled Monday after the White House and several key senators raised concerns about legislation to heavily tax the bonus payments.
President Barack Obama is clearly uncomfortable with legislation that would retroactively levy huge taxes on bonuses paid by the largest recipients of government bailout money. But he should do more and actually oppose it.
In the explosion of outrage over the AIG executive bonus scandal, each party has hurled charges at the other. Both parties are blaming each other for rejecting measures that would have limited executive bonuses.
AIG understated the amount of money it paid out to top executives after receiving federal bailout money, the attorney general of Connecticut says -- but AIG denies the accusations.
Twenty state attorneys general announced investigations Friday into the $165 million bonuses paid by insurance giant AIG last week, with Connecticut's top lawyer issuing subpoenas to CEO Edward Liddy and 11 other executives.
Stocks managed gains for the second week in a row despite tumbling Friday, as investors pulled back after the recent run.
A defiant Sen. Chris Dodd defended his actions on bonuses for AIG executives Friday as news surfaced that a senior company executive was returning his $6 million bonus.
The stories about the outrageous $160 million bonus payments at AIG have all omitted the most important names.
The Senate is taking up a controversial bill that would impose a hefty tax on bonuses paid out by companies propped up by taxpayer money.
Arrogance. Incompetence. Greed.
Forget al Qaeda, Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Axis of Evil. A once obscure acronym is on the lips of President Barack Obama, just about every politician in Washington and a lot of angry taxpayers nationwide.
President Obama and his economic team say they were powerless to avoid paying AIG's bonus contracts, but some top legal experts disagree with that argument.
The House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday to try to recoup bonuses paid to Wall Street executives with taxpayer money.
The pitchfork-wielding anti-bonus mob stirred up by American International Group is making for lousy tax policy.
In getting the nation's economy back on its feet and pursuing an agenda aimed at keeping it there for the next 40 years, the White House has to do two things at once: implement effective policies and keep the public behind the president long enough to keep implementing them until they work.
Stocks rallied Wednesday, posting gains for their sixth of seven sessions, after the Federal Reserve said it would buy up to $300 billion in long-term government bonds.
As the tide of outrage over AIG bonuses continued unabated Wednesday, a congressional committee became the epicenter of the issue as Edward Liddy, CEO and chairman of the troubled insurer, prepared to answer questions about executive bonuses.
Edward Liddy, chief executive officer of American International Group, is known for straight talking, consistent profit-making and innovative thinking.
When American International Group CEO Ed Liddy appeared before Congress Wednesday, he was allowed to sit in a chair. But it might be more fitting if he were tied to a stake.
Here's a last-minute suggestion for American International Group chief Ed Liddy as he prepares to be berated this afternoon by the House Financial Services Committee for having decided to pay the employees at AIG Financial Products the payments they were contractually owed: At the end of this afternoon's hearing, he should walk up to each representative still there and hand over a letter of resignation.
So how did it come to this? How did American International Group go from insurance giant to national outcast?
The latest spectacle in the AIG circus is a supposedly tough federal rule on executive compensation that has drawn no blood.
The fallout continued Tuesday over $165 million in bonus payments paid to executives by bailed-out insurer American International Group.
Anger over $165 million in bonuses doled out to American International Group senior employees reached a fevered pitch on Monday, prompting the Obama administration to vow to recoup the money and a New York prosecutor to subpoena the firm for recipients' names.
Troubled insurance giant AIG, already under fire for intending to pay out $165 million in bonuses and compensation, succumbed Sunday to congressional pressure, identifying banks that received chunks of the company's billions in federal bailout funds last year.
President Obama said Monday he will attempt to block bonuses to executives at ailing insurance giant AIG, payments he described as an "outrage."
While Washington's attacks on Wall Street bonuses have reached a fever pitch - "outrageous," declared President Obama's economic advisor Larry Summers on Sunday about AIG's bonuses - this latest round of firepower is being leveled at forces already in retreat.
AIG gave in to demands from Congress Sunday, naming the banks that pocketed billions of dollars last fall as part of a federal bailout of the troubled insurer.
A year after the government rescued Bear Stearns, the economy has stumbled badly.
White House officials and some members of Congress reacted strongly Sunday to news that insurance giant AIG had intended to pay out $165 million in bonuses and compensation. The company has received at least $170 billion in federal bailout money.
Under pressure from the Treasury, insurance giant AIG - a recipient of at least $170 billion in federal bailout money - is scaling back bonuses and compensation for some of its top-earning employees.
Under pressure from the Treasury Department, insurance giant AIG plans to scale back bonuses and compensation for some of its top-earning employees.
Donald Kohn, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, learned this week about blackmail, Senate style, when he refused to disclose the names of financial institutions benefiting from the bailout of American International Group.
We want to know why the Federal Reserve is helping insurance giant AIG keep its secrets.
Even though Citigroup shares dropped below a dollar Thursday, volume appeared healthy as 577 million shares changed hands.
If you're an insurance company hoping for a government handout, unless your name is AIG, you've been out of luck so far.
Officials shouldn't reveal which Wall Street firms pocketed billions of dollars in the government's bailout of AIG, a top Federal Reserve official said.
American International Group is keeping the spin machine employed. The U.S. insurance giant - which just received its fourth taxpayer bailout - has four public relations groups on its payroll.
Lawmakers want to know who's pocketing the money taxpayers have spent to prop up AIG.
European markets closed lower Tuesday, following a global selling spree the day before.
The U.S. government, saying it needed to prevent broad damage to the financial system, announced Monday that it was again restructuring the bailout of American International Group after the battered insurer reported a staggering $62 billion quarterly loss.
Bond prices rose Monday as stocks buckled in response to a massive quarterly loss by insurance giant AIG and ongoing concerns about the economy.
Wall Street's benchmark Dow Jones index plunged Monday to close at levels not seen since 1997 -- after U.S. insurance giant AIG revealed monumental quarterly losses of $62 billion.
The government has a new remedy for sickly financial giants -- but signs of healing remain scarce.
American International Group has set a doleful record. The insurer has reported a $61.7 billion quarterly loss, the largest ever. The swelling of its woes also makes U.S. taxpayers even bigger losers.
You and I will soon own a very big chunk of Citigroup.
Troubled insurer American International Group is looking for more help from the federal government as it struggles to sell off assets and keep its core businesses afloat.
It's not as if U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner doesn't have enough to worry about. Now, American International Group is back. The struggling insurer said on Monday that it continues to "work with the U.S. government to evaluate potential new alternatives". Unfortunately, Geithner is already familiar with the most likely not-so-new scenario.
The government may again have to overhaul its bailout of troubled insurer American International Group.
It's a sure sign of the bad times when safe, stable and unexciting insurance companies are cracking up.
The British soccer team Manchester United - one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world - is looking for a new shirt sponsor.
To help troubled insurer American International Group stabilize its finances, the Federal Reserve and Treasury have offered AIG a sizeable lifeline to be paid back over the next five years - and to date, the company has borrowed almost all of it.
Within insurance giant American International Group, but known to only a few people, is something irreverently called the "kill list."
Stocks fell Monday in a thinly traded session amid concerns about fourth-quarter corporate earnings, falling oil prices and ongoing woes in the auto industry.
As part of its plan to pay back a massive government bailout, American International Group Inc. is selling assets, with its most recent sale on Monday.
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