AIG decision threatens too-big-to-fail insurer label

Fragmentation of international rules on cards as US denounces systemic designations

In the middle of September 2008, the world’s largest insurer at the time, AIG, received a cash injection from the US Federal Reserve of $85 billion in return for 80% of its equity. A further $100 billion was needed to shore up the failing insurer over the following year, making it the largest corporate bailout in US history. Almost exactly nine years later, federal regulators have been escorted out of AIG’s New York headquarters, leaving direct supervision solely in the hands of state insurance