AIG division 'to give back $30 mln in bonuses'

Bosses at the AIG's financial products division have agreed to pay back 30 million dollars in bonuses amid outcry over the use of tax payers' money for executive perks, local media reported Monday.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said some 15 of the top 20 bonus recipients in the firm's financial products division had agreed to give back their windfalls, the New York Times reported.

"Those bonuses will be returned in full," Cuomo told journalists.

AIG has been lambasted after it emerged AIG had used 165 million dollars of government bailout funds to pay for staff bonuses, despite massive losses at the firm.

In the final quarter of 2008 AIG posted a 61.7 billion dollar loss, the largest quarterly loss ever recorded in the United States.

AIG's financial products division was widely blamed for the company's downfall through its investments in complex financial derivatives that turned out to be worth a fraction of their on-book value.

News that some of the unit's staff had received retention bonuses derived from tax payers cash prompted US lawmakers to propose a 90 percent tax on the premiums.

The US government has so far pumped around 170 billion dollars into the insurance giant to keep it afloat, fearing its collapse could deepen a market-wide liquidity crisis.





Bleier