AIG Taking On Global Issues; Ups Dividend

By Susanne Sclafane

NU Online News Service, May 14, 2003, 4:41 p.m. EST?The chairman of American International Group and other executives spent nearly an hour-and-a-half this morning laying out last year's results, in an effort to convince the company's shareholders of the firm's global leadership in the insurance industry.

It wasn't a hard sell for at least one shareholder who was so convinced of AIG Chairman Maurice Greenberg's standing as a global leader that she sought his expertise on solving the nation's unemployment problem.

"Why can't [President] Bush find the money" for a federal program to solve the problem? she asked, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Gracefully sidestepping the question, Mr. Greenberg said, "I have trouble enough running AIG."

But with the company's financial strength unscathed by a reserve charge, by low interest rates, or by an accounting rule that he believes forced AIG to report a larger investment loss than necessary last year, Mr. Greenberg and his team have their sights on battles beyond AIG, their remarks revealed.

Repeating some familiar themes he's taken to a circuit of analyst meetings in recent months, Mr. Greenberg talked about AIG's fight for tort reform and his company's tough stance against reinsurers. AIG CFO Howard Smith also revealed a new AIG crusade against a rule being put forth by the International Accounting Standards Board.

On the tort reform front, Mr. Greenberg said: "There's a good chance that class action reform will pass through Congress this year."

"Asbestos legislation is likely. Whether or not we ever get a deal done?it's too soon to tell," he said, noting that there are "too many moving parts" and constituencies involved with asbestos reform efforts.

Referring to AIG's efforts to rank every state's tort system, he said, "Why would insurance companies want to buy municipal bonds" from states that rank very low? Attacking states in this way, as they confront budget deficits, "will have an impact," he asserted.

During his discussion of the "state of the insurance industry," which he characterized as having been "badly mauled" by a bear stock market, terrorism losses and tort costs, Mr. Greenberg told shareholders how AIG has taken the upper hand over the reinsurance industry as well.

Noting that reinsurers "got hit even harder than the rest of the industry" and that reinsurer "downgrades have been fast and furious," he said reinsurers have to meet "certain standards" set by a "very strict" AIG credit department.

"As they've gotten downgraded, they've been taken off our credit list. They can only stay on there if they post collateral?adequate to meet what we believe are the exposures we may have today," he said, noting that the collateral requirement was in place for domestic and foreign reinsurers alike.

"If that list shrinks, so be it. And if we [have to] keep more business for ourselves, we'll do that," he added.

Mr. Greenberg also repeated his often-reported prediction that "rates will stay firm," pointing to the fact that capital that's come into the global insurance industry in the past year or so is "modest" relative to the amount bled out by the various problems assaulting insurers.

With all the challenges, he said, AIG has stood its ground navigating through tough times. At one point, he noted that while some insurers are seeing declines in property rates, AIG continues to get increases averaging 15 percent.

Mr. Greenberg also waived off a stock sell-off in reaction to AIG's $1.8 billion after-tax reserve increase for fourth-quarter 2002 as an "overreaction" that was "rather puzzling."

"It is insignificant in relation to AIG's balance sheet" and "not a major event from our point of view," he said.

Mr. Greenberg began his remarks going through some of the record financial results AIG achieved last year.

He noted that the company had record shareholders equity of $59 billion at year-end 2002. "No insurance company in the world comes remotely close to that," he said.

AIG's 2002 net income of $5.52 billion is more than any other insurance company in the world?and more than the top 18 property-casualty companies in the United States combined, he added.

As for recent investor concerns about the impact of SARS on life insurers, while he conceded that there would be some impact on "first-year sales," he also said that AIG had developed special products to deal with SARS.

"Long-term, the SARS scare, in Asia, will be the biggest boon to the sale of life insurance and related products that I can think of," he asserted, although "that's not the way you'd like to see it happen."

Making an editorial comment about some different implications, he said, "It's certainly going to clean up a lot of countries. Restaurants will be a lot cleaner in many parts of Asia."

Turning to address another key concern investors have had in recent years--corporate governance--Chairman Greenberg said, "Even though we believe we were doing things properly, nonetheless, we made a number of corporate governance changes."

He noted, for instance, that with elections made at today's meeting, six of 10 board members are now outside directors?"a much different number than it was historically."

Referring to the expansion of AIG's financial reporting in recent quarters, he said, "If you try to carry our 10K and shareholders report, you're taking weight training."

Mr. Smith reported further on "issues in the corporate governance and financial reporting world," noting that he and Mr. Greenberg are not the only ones signing financial certifications at AIG. With their certifications required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, he and Mr. Greenberg are, in turn, requiring individual operating officers of AIG's major units, as well as investment and actuarial officers, to sign off on their unit's performance.

Turning his attention to the efforts of the International Accounting Standards Board to create a set of global accounting standards, Mr. Smith said, "obviously, we think that makes sense in the long run."

However, AIG opposes one proposed standard--an early principle of the project that would have every asset and every liability on the balance sheet stated at fair (market) value every quarter. Calling this "troublesome," he said, "what the ultimate result would be is that the income statement would be nothing more than a change in the two balance sheets."

"You can imagine the volatility that can be caused on an income statement" by this, he said. "We think that it is going to make the income statement almost useless in a number of industries," including the property-casualty insurance industry.

Calling it a "poor first step" and reporting that AIG "has been very vocal with the IASB," he went on to say that AIG had joined with 11 European insurers in opposition. In addition, he said, AIG also convened a meeting with a coalition of U.S. insurers just last night on the issue.

AIG, he said, is not recommending that the IASB scrap the issue, but that that they provide the new information as supplemental data, instead of making the "dramatic step of changing the income statement overnight."

While U.S. insurers have been quiet on this issue, he said: "This is almost like a freight train that coming down the tracks. If we don't react as an industry in the United States, we're going to have a severe problem on our hands."

Ending the meeting on a high note, Mr. Greenberg reported that the executive committee had voted to approve a 5.2 cents per share dividend, beginning with the September payment. The new dividend rate represents a 10.6 percent increased over the present level.

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AIG Taking On Global Issues; Ups Dividend

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