AIG chief executive Edward Liddy will tell Congress this week that the sprawling firm that has received roughly $180 billion in federal aid commitments does not need more bailout money.
"We are stabilizing AIG's liquidity so that we do not need support beyond those amounts that the government has already authorized, although as I have said before the state of the economy will be a factor," Liddy will testify on Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Liddy said that the company, which has received the most bailout money of any firm, will restructure into a smaller corporation and no longer have a financial products division. That was the division that expanded deep into the market for risky credit default swaps and brought the firm to its knees.
The company has limited its exposure to those derivatives to $1.5 trillion in face value, compared with the original $2.7 trillion.
Liddy said AIG is working to divest properties to repay taxpayers, but intends not to sell parts of the company at "firesale prices."
AIG kicked up a firestorm when the firm disclosed that it intended to pay $165 million in executive compensation to employees of the financial products division. The criticism dominated Capitol Hill for more than a week, and led President Obama to express outrage at the payments.
Still, Liddy will warn Congress not to distract the firm from restructuring with more criticism.
"Rampant, unwarranted criticism of AIG serves only to diminish the value of our businesses around the world -- to the detriment of our shareholders, including taxpayers, who own some 80 percent of AIG," Liddy writes.
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