Greenberg attacks Liddy

Former AIG chief executive Maurice ‘Hank Greenberg has written to current to current AIG CEO Edward Liddy opposing the sale of AIG's Asia-Pacific unit, American International Assurance.

"To dispose of AIA in whole or part could seriously damage the future potential of AIG," Greenberg said in the letter, disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The full text of the letter said:

• It has been widely reported that you are contemplating the sale in part or whole of AIA. AIA is one of the crown jewels of AIG and the only foreign life insurance company in China that is wholly owned and as such, does not require a local partner.
• AIA, as you probably know by now, also operates in every country in Southeast Asia and has been the flag carrier of life insurance in that part of the world. To dispose of AIA in whole or part could seriously damage the future potential of AIG.
• We have a vast difference of opinion as to how best to pay back the taxpayer. Your strategy is to break up AIG and retain the property/casualty units. The property/casualty units are losing people and business daily and its future as a stand-alone operation is questionable. The suggestion I have been making has the best chance of repaying the debt to the U.S. government and rebuilding AIG so that it becomes a taxpayer on its own as well as an employer of a vast number of people. Selling off pieces of AIG’s foreign companies will hardly create the jobs or tax payments in the U.S. in the future.
• Since there is a change in Administration now in place and a new Secretary of Treasury likely to be confirmed today, I would urge you on behalf of AIG’s largest shareholder outside the government, to put on hold any sale of assets until the appropriate people in the new Administration can determine what is best for the U.S. taxpayer.

East West Bank, the banking arm of local conglomerate Filinvest Development said it has acquired the Philippine savings bank and car financing units of AIG

Antonio Moncupa, president and chief executive of East West Bank, said the bank will finance the purchase with internally-generated funds.