AIG property-casualty businesses, contributing more than a third of the companys revenue, posted sales increases in three straight quarters last year after plunging 23 percent following the companys near-death experience in September 2008. Life insurance and retirement-products sales, AIGs other main operations, rose for the first time since the bailout in the three months ended September 2009.
“There are clear signs that AIG has pulled out of what could have been a death spiral,” said David Havens, managing director in credit trading at Nomura Securities International Inc. - - - - >

Spilker, 45, will turn over responsibilities at the end of February to Edward Forst, who rejoined the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history in September from Harvard University, according to internal memorandums yesterday from Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn. The departing executive was on the firms management committee, whose members got year-end bonuses for 2009 in stock they cant sell for five years instead of cash.
Spilkers exit is the latest of a series of changes atop investment management, which accounts - - - - >

Aiful triggered a settlement auction of credit-default swaps when it agreed to extend the maturity of loans to avoid bankruptcy, the International Swaps & Derivatives Associations Japan Determinations Committee ruled yesterday. The cost of Aiful swaps implies that sellers of protection on $1.3 billion of the companys debt will pay 75 cents on the dollar to settle contracts, CMA prices show.
The ruling ends a three-month dispute that threatened to undermine confidence in Japans default swaps market. The committee previously rejected three requests to trigger the contracts, - - - - >

Aiful triggered a settlement auction of credit-default swaps when it agreed to extend the maturity of loans to avoid bankruptcy, the International Swaps & Derivatives Associations Japan Determinations Committee ruled yesterday. The cost of Aiful swaps implies that sellers of protection on $1.3 billion of the companys debt will pay 75 cents on the dollar to settle contracts, CMA prices show.
The ruling ends a three-month dispute that threatened to undermine confidence in Japans default swaps market. The committee previously rejected three requests to trigger the contracts, - - - - >

“Elevated levels of investment losses” will weigh on the New York-based insurer, Moodys said in a statement yesterday as it cut the senior debt rating one level to A3, the fourth lowest of 10 investment grade ratings, from A2.
MetLife is bracing for losses on its $50 billion in commercial real estate loans and commercial mortgage-backed securities. The insurer, which used derivatives to maintain profits last year as markets slumped, has posted $2.57 billion in losses this year as stocks and bonds recover. - - - - >

The lawsuit, filed by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, is based on federal and state antitrust claims. It alleges Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America and more than a dozen other banks conspired to pre-select winners of municipal derivative auctions, coordinated their pricing, and accepted kickbacks disguised as fees from co-conspirators.
The allegations resemble those made by a U.S. grand jury in New York last month, according to the lawsuit filed Nov. 12 in federal court in Sacramento. CDR Financial Products Inc. founder David Rubin and two - - - - >

Investment-grade U.S. bonds returned 8.3 percent in the period, following 11 percent in the second quarter, the best gain since 1982, according to Merrill Lynch & Co., and some home-loan bonds reached prices almost double their March lows. Almost 60 percent of AIGs bond portfolio as of June 30 was in corporate debt and securities tied to residential mortgages.
“Theyre going to get a big pop on a mark-to-market basis and have higher earnings,” said Haag Sherman, who helps oversee $7.5 billion as chief investment officer of - - - - >

The commission would get the power sought by Chairman Gary Gensler to regulate bilateral swaps in commodities such as wheat and natural gas, and may impose position limits on speculation that takes place outside of regulated exchanges, according to a 187-page draft measure released Oct. 2 by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.
The legislation advances the commissions efforts to “effect comprehensive oversight of the OTC markets to ensure transparency and accountability to these currently opaque markets,” Commissioner Bart Chilton said in an e-mail. The commission - - - - >

“Material components of the transaction were not disclosed to the court before and at the sale hearing,” lawyers for Lehman said in a filing yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. “The fact is that the deal was actually structured to give Barclays an immediate and enormous windfall profit. Certain Lehman executives agreed to give Barclays an undisclosed $5 billion discount off the book value of securities.”
Lehman said Barclays windfall may have been more than $8.2 billion when margin deposits and liabilities Barclays assumed are taken - - - - >

The proposal issued yesterday would pressure derivatives users such as banks and hedge funds to move away from opaque customized contracts by imposing higher capital and margin requirements on the instruments. Standardized derivatives would be moved to regulated exchanges or trading platforms and sent through official clearinghouses, according to the draft measure.
“The big broker dealers make a lot of money trading these customized derivatives,” said Paul Miller, a banking analyst for FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia.
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