SEC Comment Letter for AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP, (AIG) — Mar 29, 2010
AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP, INC.
Date: March 29, 2010 · CIK: 0000005272 · Accession: 0000000000-10-017032
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Via Facsimile and U.S. Mail Mail Stop 4720 March 29, 2010 Mr. David L. Herzog Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer American Internati onal Group, Inc.
70 Pine Street New York, New York 10270 Dear Mr. Herzog:
We are currently reviewing your Form 10-K for fiscal year ended December 31,
2009. In our effort to better understand th e decisions you made in determining the
accounting for certain of your repurchase agreem ents, securities lend ing transactions, or
other transactions involving th e transfer of financial asse ts with an obligation to
repurchase the transferred assets , we ask that you provide us with information relating to
those decisions and your disclosure.
With regard to your repurchase agreemen ts, please tell us whether you account for
any of those agreements as sales for accounti ng purposes in your financial statements. If
you do, we ask that you:
Quantify the amount of repurchase agreements qualifying for sales accounting at each
quarterly balance sheet date for each of the past three years.
Quantify the average quarterly balance of repurchase agreements qualifying for sales
accounting for each of the past three years.
Describe all
the differences in transaction te rms that result in certain of your
repurchase agreements qualifying as sales versus collateralized financings.
Provide a detailed analysis supporting your use of sales accounting for your
repurchase agreements.
Describe the business reasons for structur ing the repurchase agreements as sales
transactions versus collateralized financi ngs. To the extent the amounts accounted for
as sales transactions have varied over the past three ye ars, discuss the reasons for
quarterly changes in the amount s qualifying for sales accounting.
Mr. David L. Herzog
American Internati onal Group, Inc.
March 29, 2010 Page 2
Describe how your use of sales accounting fo r certain of your repurchase agreements
impacts any ratios or metrics you use public ly, provide to analysts and credit rating
agencies, disclose in your filings with the SEC, or provide to other regulatory
agencies.
Tell us whether the repurchase agreem ents qualifying for sales accounting are
concentrated with certain counterparties and/ or concentrated within certain countries.
If you have any such concentrations, please discuss the reasons for them.
Tell us whether you have changed your original accounting on any repurchase
agreements during the last three years. If you have, explain specifically how you
determined the original accounting as either a sales transaction or as a collateralized financing transaction noting the specific f acts and circumstances leading to this
determination. Describe the factors, ev ents or changes which resulted in your
changing your accounting and describe how the change impacted your financial
statements.
For those repurchase agreements you account for as collateralized financings,
please quantify the average quarterly balance fo r each of the past three years. In addition,
quantify the period end balance for each of those quarters and the maximum balance at
any month-end. Explain the causes and busin ess reasons for significant variances among
these amounts.
In addition, please tell us:
Whether you have any securities lending tr ansactions that you account for as sales
pursuant to the guidance in ASC 860-10. If you do, quantify the amount of these
transactions at each quarterl y balance sheet date for each of the past three years.
Provide a detailed analysis supporting your decision to account for these securities
lending transactions as sales.
Whether you have any other transactions i nvolving the transfer of financial assets
with an obligation to repurchase the tran sferred assets, simila r to repurchase or
securities lending transactions that you account for as sale s pursuant to the guidance
in ASC 860. If you do, describe the key term s and nature of these transactions and
quantify the amount of the tran sactions at each quarterly balance sheet date for the
past three years.
Whether you have offset financial assets a nd financial liabilities in the balance sheet
where a right of setoff – the general princi ple for offsetting – does not exist. If you
have offset financial assets and financial lia bilities in the balance sheet where a right
of setoff does not exist, please identify t hose circumstances, explain the basis for your
presentation policy, and quantify the gro ss amount of the financial assets and
financial liabilities that are offset in the balance sheet. For example, please tell us
whether you have offset securities owned (long positions) with securities sold, but not
Mr. David L. Herzog
American Internati onal Group, Inc.
March 29, 2010 Page 3
yet purchased (short positions), along with any basis for your presentation policy and
the related gross amounts that are offset.
Finally, if you accounted for repurchas e agreements, securities lending
transactions, or other transact ions involving the transfer of financial assets with an
obligation to repurchase the tran sferred assets as sales and di d not provide disclosure of
those transactions in your Management’s Di scussion and Analysis, pl ease advise us of
the basis for your conclusion that disclosure was not necessary and describe the process
you undertook to reach that conclusion. We re fer you to paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(4) of
Item 303 of Regulation S-K.
As noted above, we seek to better unde rstand the basis for your decisions and
your disclosure. Please provide us with a written response to these questions within ten
business days from the date of this lette r or tell us when you will respond. Upon our
review of your response to these questions, we may have additional comments that we
will provide to you with any other comme nts we may have on your Form 10-K.
Please contact me if you have any questions at (202) 551-3679.
S i n c e r e l y ,
Jim B. Rosenberg Senior Assistant Chief Accountant