The total outstanding value of federal government exposure to American International Group Inc. assistance efforts has fallen to about $121 billion, from a high of $183 billion, officials estimate.
The Federal Reserve System and the U.S. Treasury Department started helping AIG, New York, in September 2008, in response to fears that the financial crisis occurring the time "threatened the stability of the U.S. banking system and the solvency of a number of financial institutions, including AIG," according to officials at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
By April 2009, government agencies had allocated more than $180 billion to handle tasks such as keeping AIG's credit default swaps program from imploding and meeting the general financial needs of the parent company and its subsidiaries, GAO officials write.
As of Sept. 2, 2009, AIG had paid $6.8 billion toward principal on two Maiden Lane subsidiaries that the Federal Reserve Board of New York set up.
