AIG Funnels Billions from Bailout to European Banks
Isaac Hayes - 20 March 2009Why have several European banks, including Germany’s Deutsche Bank, profited from a US government bailout package for struggling insurance giant AIG? All banks have declined to comment on the payouts.
American International Group, once one of the world's most profitable insurers, recently required around $180 billion (139 billion Euros) from the US government to stay afloat amid the global economic crisis
AIG revealed that more than $90 billion of the bailout package was paid out to other banks, including Goldman Sachs, Germany's Deutsche Bank, France's Societe Generale and the UK's Barclays.
Deutsche Bank was paid out $11.8 billion in total, France's Societe Generale received $11.9 billion and the UK's Barclays was given $8.5 billion.
Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University in the US, told news agency Reuters that the funneling of parts of the bailout package to European banks may raise doubts in the US about whether the financial rescue was economically necessary.
AIG recently announced a quarterly loss of $61.7 billion, pushing up its net loss for 2008 to $99.3 billion.
