Panel Tallies AIG Aid

July 10, 2009 at 08:00 PM
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The federal government has provided more financial support for Citigroup Inc. than it has for American International Group Inc.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, the body overseeing government bailout efforts, has published data on the top beneficiaries of federal bailout support in a report on Troubled Asset Relief Program repayments.

The panel is led by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard University professor once best known in the insurance industry as the source of research suggesting that disability is one of the most common of home loan foreclosures.

The panel notes in the report that AIG has not started paying the government back for government assistance but has not had any payments come due.

The government has provided a total of $170 billion in support for AIG, New York, about $290 billion in support for Citigroup, and $4.3 trillion in support for all aid recipients, the panel estimates.

The panel notes that this figure includes all theoretical exposure to loss.

The $4.3 trillion total "would translate into the ultimate 'cost' of the stabilization effort only if: (1) Assets do not appreciate, (2) No dividends are received, no warrants are exercised, and no TARP funds are repaid, (3) All loans default and are written off, and (4) All guarantees are exercised and subsequently written off," the panel writes in its report.

As of July 2, AIG had received $70 billion in outlays from the U.S. Treasury Department and $100 billion in loans from the Federal Reserve System, the panel says.

Citigroup, New York, has received $45 billion Treasury Department outlays, $5 billion in Treasury Department guarantees, and about $230 billion in Federal Reserve guarantees, the panel says.

The panel says the AIG Treasury Department outlay total includes a $40 billion investment made Nov. 25, 2008, and a $30 billion investment committed on April 17, 2009, less a reduction of $165 million representing bonuses paid to AIG Financial Products employees.

The $100 billion in Federal Reserve AIG loans includes "the full $60 billion that is available to AIG through its revolving credit facility with the Federal Reserve ($43.5 billion had been drawn down as of July 1) and the outstanding [principal] of the loans extended to the Maiden Lane II and III special purpose vehicles … to buy AIG assets."

The outstanding principal of the loans made to Maiden Lane II was $17.5 billion July 1, and the outstanding principal of the loans made to Maiden Lane III was $22.4 billion.

AIG and the Federal Reserve System created the Maiden Lane entities to unwind complicated AIG investments.

The government's Maiden Lane entity exposure is lower than the panel had originally thought, the panel says.

The total AIG Maiden Lane exposure is lower than expected partly because buying the assets involved in efforts to unwind AIG securities turned out to be cheaper than anticipated, and partly because the Maiden Lane entities are starting to use income from the purchased assets to pay down the loans, the oversight panel says.

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