President Obama's proposal for a federal agency to regulate health insurance rates will in practice apply only in states where the regulators lack full rate review authority, state insurance regulators said.

Federal authorities clashed publicly with Maurice Greenberg over the significance of his agreement to pay $15 million in settling charges of fraudulent accounting while he headed up American International Group.

A London-based group that opposes extremism in the Middle East and Europe said pending U.S. legislation to beef up sanctions against Iran could impact Lloyd's underwriters.

The financially troubled and taxpayer-financed American International Group Inc. last week reported a net loss for 2009's first quarter of $4.35 billion, an improvement from the $7.81 billion net loss in the same period a year earlier.

American International Group Inc. and Zurich Financial Services Group announced a $1.9 billion deal last week for the sale of AIG's auto unit--21st Century Insurance Group--to a Zurich subsidiary, Farmers Group Inc.

As discussions heated up over whether to give Washington broad authority to regulate insurers posing systemic risks to the economy, the controversy cooled somewhat last week over retention bonuses paid to players at AIG's Financial Products unit.