Steve Wevodau

AIG Execs Won’t Get $3 Million Windfall - posted by Steven Wevodau

NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Seven senior executives of American International Group, the insurer that is getting $152 billion of U.S. taxpayers’ money, will not get $3 million in deferred compensation that they were expecting to be paid by April.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, AIG said it would pay about $273.5 million to more than 4,000 current, non-senior employees who took part in the retirement plans that allowed funds to be set aside and drawn upon in later years.

AIG (AIG.N) in November said it planned to accelerate payment of these funds in a bid to limit departures after the company posted $42.5 billion in losses over the past four quarters, putting it on the verge of collapse.

The federal government stepped in for a second time and restructured its bailout of AIG raising the package to $152 billion with easier terms.

Some U.S. lawmakers railed against the bailout, in part because AIG spent $440,000 at a California spa and resort.

“Less than one week after taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation,” Congressman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat said during a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The congressional hearings and a federal probe led AIG to cut executives’ pay. Chief Executive Edward Liddy, who took over AIG’s top job in September will take $1 in salary.

The seven senior executives who will not receive the disbursements that had been expecting by April include Jay Wintrob, head off AIG’s life operations. He had been due about $1.9 million, according to November figures. Wintrob received $7.5 million in salary, bonus, incentives and stock and options awards in 2007, according to filings.

David Herzog, the company’s recently appointed chief financial officer, was to have received about $371,000 by April.

Five others, including investment executive Win Neuger, were due $800,000 under the plan, AIG said.

In addition to senior executives, former employees and agents will also not receive accelerated payments, AIG said. The total that was to have been paid to these individuals was $90.3 million. (Reporting by Lilla Zuill, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

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AIG Names Christina Pretto Vice President, Corporate Media Relations - posted by Steven Wevodau

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–American International Group, Inc. (AIG) has announced that Christina Pretto has joined AIG as Vice President, Corporate Media Relations. Ms. Pretto will oversee all aspects of AIG’s corporate media relations, including developing and implementing AIG’s media relations strategy, counseling senior management on media affairs, and coordinating media activities with AIG’s communications professionals around the world.
Ms. Pretto joins AIG from Citigroup Inc., where she was Managing Director and Global Head of Public Affairs, serving as chief media spokesperson with responsibilities for managing all of the company’s media relations at the parent company level. Previously, she was Global Head of Corporate Affairs for Citigroup’s corporate and investment banking division, responsible for media relations, internal communications, branding, advertising, digital media, community affairs, and external positioning.

Ms. Pretto joined Citigroup in 2001 as Deputy Director of Public Affairs. Prior to joining Citigroup, she was the Director of Communications for Standard & Poor’s, and before that worked as a journalist covering global debt capital markets and U.S. public finance. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin.

American International Group, Inc. (AIG), a world leader in insurance and financial services, is the leading international insurance organization with operations in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions. AIG companies serve commercial, institutional and individual customers through the most extensive worldwide property-casualty and life insurance networks of any insurer. In addition, AIG companies are leading providers of retirement services, financial services and asset management around the world. AIG’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the stock exchanges in Ireland and Tokyo.

Contact:
American International Group, Inc.
Joe Norton, 212-770-3144
Director of Public Relations

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Source: American International Group, Inc.

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U.S. Jobs Hemorrhage In ‘08 - Steven Wevodau

Maurna Desmond, 01.09.09, 10:35 AM ET

 

 

 

Major indexes slid Friday morning after the U.S. Labor Department reported that the national unemployment rate had jumped to a higher than expected 7.2% during the month of December and an additional 524,000 nonfarm jobs had been shed, leaving more than 10 million Americans out of work. Economists had expected a loss of 500,000 jobs, with an unemployment rate of 7.0%.

Further evidence of weakening in the labor market reinforces concerns that the American economy may be heading into a deeper and more prolonged recession than previously expected. It also increases pressure on the incoming administration to quickly forge a comprehensive stimulus program to stem the bleeding.

With Wall Street’s fears confirmed, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 88 points, or 1.0%, to 8,654. The S&P 500 lost 14 points, or 1.6%, to 895, and the Nasdaq slipped 32 points, or 2.0%, to 1,584. Investors fled instead to safe-haven government debt, pulling down the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to 2.48%, from 2.45% just before the report and 2.44% late Thursday.

Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors said the government data indicated that the labor situation is rapidly deteriorating. “Firms are getting their cost structures in place, especially labors costs, in order to ride out the recession,” he said. “They’re not waiting. They’re cutting workers away, and we’re seeing an incredibly rapid adjustment to the economic situation.”

In the four months since Wall Street’s Black September, when markets were sent into a tailspin by the collapse of storied investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings and the government take-under of insurance giant American International Group,, payroll employment fell by 1.9 million, or 1.4%. Since the start of the U.S. recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 3.6 million, and the unemployment rate has surged by 2.3 percentage points.

“Basically, since December 2007 we’ve lost 2.6 million jobs [long-term unemployed] with no end of sight,” said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland. “A stimulus package will stabilize the situation, but until we fix the banks and the trade deficit, there won’t be any recovery.”

Compounding the sobering report was the upward revision of November nonfarm payroll losses to 584,000, from 533,000, and October’s figure was also revised upward, to 423,000 jobs lost, from 320,000.

Firms of all sizes have been cutting jobs in the United States due to dwindling demand for their goods and services from within and without as the troubles that began in the American mortgage market have proved to be a worldwide contagion. (See the Forbes Layoff Tracker.)

Earlier in the week, payroll processor Automatic Data Processing reported that the U.S. private sector shed a much higher than expected 693,000 nonfarm jobs in December. Earlier in the week, the Fed issued minutes from its Dec. 16 monetary policy meeting predicting negative GDP growth in 2009, with accelerating unemployment into 2010. (See “Fed Negative On 2009; Street Resilient.”)

–Reuters contributed to this article.

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