AIG Pays Treasury $6.9 Billion

By Chad Hemenway

March 08, 2011 at 07:00 PM

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WASHINGTON BUREAU — American International Group Inc. (AIG) says it has used cash it raised recently by selling MetLife Inc. stock to pay the U.S. Treasury Department $6.9 billion.

AIG, New York (NYSE:AIG), ended up with the stock after it sold American Life Insurance Company to MetLife, New York (NYSE:MET), in 2010.

The Treasury Department lent AIG a total of $68 billion through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The department still has an $11 billion preferred equity interest in AIG, officials say.

The department has recovered about 70% of the $411 billion lent to AIG, banks, the auto industry and others at the height of the financial crisis, officials say.

Tim Massad, acting assistant secretary for financial stability at the Treasury Department, says the department expects its investments in private companies to result in "little to no cost to taxpayers."

"Based on current market prices, Treasury estimates that taxpayers will ultimately recover every dollar that the U.S. government invested in AIG," officials say.