"Defending the money effectively and the interests of American taxpayers." That is what the U.S. Treasury Department wanted exercising "its right to appoint two directors to the board of directors of the insurer American International Group (AIG). Thus, Donald Layton and Ronald Rittenmeyer joined the group.

According to Treasury, these two newcomers "will contribute significantly to what AIG Debt Reduction, to divest itself of its so-called risky activities and reimburse the taxpayers," commented Herbert Allison, the Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability.

Donald Layton has held the position of CEO including E * Trade Financial Corporation and worked for 29 years at JP Morgan Chase (until 2004).Ronald Rittenmeyer himself has chaired and directed Dating Electronic Systems, a technology services company that was sold to Hewlett-Packard in August 2008.

For the U.S. Treasury Department, the appointments are "right" puisqu'AIG breached its duty to pay dividends on preferred shares held by the State. And for four quarters.

A rescue that has cost too much

The insurer had in fact been rescued from the brink of bankruptcy in September 2008 by the American central bank (Fed). Moreover, officials of the support plan that was put in place for the U.S. insurance group felt that excessive funding were paid cash loans Guaranteed approval ".

Directed by Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General to oversee the use of 700 billion dollars of public funds used in the heart of the crisis (or 468 billion euros), a report overwhelms including Timothy Geithner, the current Treasury secretary U.S. and chairman of the Federal Reserve of New York at the material time.

The rescue of AIG will ultimately cost about 180 billion (120.4 billion euros).

Disposals to repay

With the sale of Alico to MetLife for $ 15.5 billion, and after the agreement to sell its Asian branch of life insurance, American International Assurance, to $ 35.5 billion to the group Prudential, AIG will go to the New York Fed's $ 32 billion in cash in the coming months, if both operations are packed as expected by the end of 2010, the Wall Sreet Journal highlighted recently.

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