AIG 2010 Annual Report Download - page 10

8 AIG 2010 Annual Report
How important was the U.S. government support to AIG,
and what has made the partnership so successful?
Bob: U.S. government intervention was
absolutely essential for AIG, as well as for
the global nancial system. I want to stress
that in 2008 the world found itself with an
incredible liquidity crisis and a dramatic
failure of markets to be able to allow
people to sell certain assets.
Steve: In our hour of need, the taxpayers
and the government were very supportive.
They gave us a chance to prove what we
can do, and we are pleased we were given
that opportunity. We are happy we are
now in a position to begin to pay back
the American taxpayers, hopefully with a
prot.
Bob: It is important to recognize that the
government is made up of people just like
us, who have a responsibility to the orga-
nization they’re part of and want to do the
In addition to the U.S. taxpayers, how important were the
contributions from AIG employees during these difcult
times?
Bob: AIG has always had the reputation
of having the best people, very results-
oriented, independent thinkers. And when
I came here in 2009, it was absolutely true.
Our customers tell us that we have bright,
innovative, entrepreneurial people who
solve their complex problems. Customers
are pleased that many of the people at AIG
stayed at AIG to continue to work with
them.
We recently conducted a global employee
survey – in which we had 92 percent par-
ticipation, which is a very high number for
an organization our size – and a key theme
that came out was a strong commitment
to integrity and compliance by our people
across all our organizations. You have to
remember, AIG employees continued to
have faith in AIG when many outside the
company did not. They have been the
revamped risk management, audit, nan-
cial analysis, and planning so that – while
we want to be a strong, entrepreneurial,
client-focused company – we have the right
level of checks and balances to help make
sure that we’re running our businesses in a
sound way.
right thing for their constituencies. And
even more broadly, they want to do the
right thing for the bigger picture. We have
been fortunate to have many hardworking,
talented people in the government sitting
with us day-to-day making sure we do the
right things and partnering with us to help
us get out of the hole we were in.
This partnership has been very successful,
and AIG is now in a position to help, as
Steve said, the taxpayers recoup all of their
money, hopefully with a prot.
Steve: The fact remains that the U.S.
Treasury Department is a major share-
holder that will continue to oversee AIG,
as you would expect any major share-
holder to do. The key to their stepping
away from day-to-day involvement will be
our performance, and our ability to run
the business the right way, provide good
results, and make sure we do things right.
We have to keep asking ourselves, are we
doing the right things as we improve our
business and make sure we’re getting the
right risk-adjusted returns for the assets
we still have?