The CEO of American International Group, Robert Benmosche, put himself at odds with critics within the financial services industry and Congress opposed to higher capital standards when he said they are justified given the 2008 financial crisis.

In an appearance on CNBC following Thursday's release of AIG's fourth quarter earnings report, Benmosche implied that AIG will be regulated going forward under the Basel III capital standards.

“The regulators are not going to be criticized the next time around,” Benmosche said. “They'll make sure we have enough money, and that's just the way it's going to have to be.”

At that point, CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo added, “Right, because it wasn't just the CEOs that made bad decisions with the 2008 collapse, it was the regulators being asleep at the wheel. I'm sorry but let's be honest here.”

“Maria, the fact is that the public is angry, because we made salaries and bonuses and the public wound up having to have the government stand behind us during a difficult period of time,” Benmosche said. “The regulators are absolutely committed to make sure no matter what happens in a dire circumstance, every financial institution can survive it without the aid of the government.”

Because the company took a $182 billion government bail-out, AIG expected higher scrutiny from its regulators and rating agencies, he indicated, and it is adjusting its business operations to account for that.

Benmosche said AIG is being run as if it were subject to federal oversight and under heightened capital rules such as those proposed by international regulators.

The reason, he said, is that given AIG's recent history, regulators and rating agencies are going to require the additional capital

His comments appear to put him at odds with the likes of Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan, many other financial institutions, community banks and members of Congress, who have voiced opposition to higher capital standards during various Congressional hearings.

Benmosche also said that AIG “is being looked at” by the Financial Stability Oversight Council as a potential systemically significant financial institution (SIFI) but that the body “has not made a decision” as to whether it will be designated a SIFI.

“We're running the company as if we will be. We're working with the Federal Reserve today as our regulator, as a savings and loan holding company,” Benmosche said. “So they're there; we're working with them; we're going through the process with them, although it's a little more limited versus being a SIFI.”

But, Benmosche said, “We're proceeding as if we will continue to be regulated either as a SIFI or the way we are today.

“So I think—I don't expect dramatic change, and what's important is we just have to adapt our earnings targets to having slightly more capital, but I think that's not going to be a big problem at the end of the day,” Benmosche said.

Concerning the company's fourth quarter performance, AIG reported operating income of 20 cents a share, far in excess of consensus analysts' estimates of a loss of eight cents a share.

Benmosche said that when charges for Superstorm Sandy, which he called the “largest catastrophe in the U.S.,” are removed, the company managed a profit

Net premiums in AIG's Chartis P&C business were $6 billion, in line with expectations.

“You'll see that our loss ratios for eight quarters now are slowly coming down,” Benmosche said. “So, the day-to-day results are terrific, and we had a couple of headline problems which caused the quarter[ly] [loss]. But still, [even] with the huge loss of Sandy of $2 billion pre-tax, we still made a profit in the quarter.”

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AIG&rsquo;s Benmosche Says Higher Capital Standards Necessary

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