(Bloomberg) – AmericanInternational Group Inc.'s headcount fell by 10,000 last yearas Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock sold units and cutjobs.

The number of employees fell by 15 percent to 56,400 as of Dec.31, New York-based AIG said Thursday in a regulatory filing. Thatcompares with 116,000 at the end of 2008.

Hancock follows predecessors Robert Benmosche and Edward Liddyin shrinking the company that longtime CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg had builtinto the world's largest insurer. The company sold some of itslargest units from 2009 through 2012 to repay a U.S. bailout.

While Hancock made some small acquisitions after becoming CEO inlate 2014, activist investors led by Carl Icahn then pushed formore asset sales. Last year the CEO announced agreements to sell a mortgage guarantor, abroker-dealer network, a Lloyd's of London insurer and assets in Chile, Japan and Argentina.

“We expect to see the results from our improved underwritingplatform, reduced expense base and the strong improvement in ourbusiness mix,” Hancock said last week in a statement announcing afourth-quarter loss of $3.04 billion that was driven by swellingclaims costs.

AIG has also been moving jobs to lower-cost locations andcutting positions, including hundreds of postsin New York and the U.K. He told staff in a town-hall meeting inlate 2015 not to count on lifetime employment with the company,according to people familiar with his remarks.

The insurer said early last year that it would seek to cut $1.6billion in costs by the end of 2017. Restructuring expenses, whichinclude severance packages, were about $700 million last year,according to the filing.

Prudential's growth

The approach contrasts with the growth of Prudential FinancialInc., which has been expanding through acquisitions. The Newark,New Jersey-based company ended 2016 with about 49,700 employees,with more than half of them outside the U.S., according to aregulatory filing last week. That compares with less than 40,000 adecade earlier.

Hancock also has been striking reinsurance deals to simplify thecompany. He announced an agreement in January to pay Warren Buffett'sBerkshire Hathaway Inc. about $10 billion to take on risks frompolicies that AIG initiated in prior years. The CEO reached aseparate reinsurance contract with Swiss Re AG last year.

And on July 1, AIG entered a transaction with Hannover Re, according to the regulatory filing onThursday. That deal freed up about $1 billion of capital, AIGsaid.

AIG shares have slipped about 2 percent this year, compared withthe 5.6 percent climb in the S&P 500 Index.

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