New chief executive insists core business is strong.
AIG’s new chief executive, Edward Liddy, has moved to reassure employees, according to reports from the US media
Liddy, who was named chief executive last week as part of the US government's $85 billion rescue package, insisted that many of AIG's core businesses were strong but conceded that the company did not have much time to turn itself around.
He said: “'It's a short time frame that will unfold quickly. I don't have the luxury of a lot of time, and I don't have a lot of time to dot every i and cross every t.''
Liddy, the former chief executive of Allstate, said that the company's core insurance units were strong and that he did not intend to liquidate them or sell them to raise cash.
Questioned about a report that state insurance regulators were forming a commission to oversee the sale of AIG's life and property-casualty insurance companies, Liddy said that he was not aware that such a group was being formed.
Over the weekend, media speculation focused on the passage of the legislation that would allow for the creation of a $700bn US government fund to buy toxic debt, thus restoring public confidence in financial institutions and repairing their balance sheets.
