Monday, March 16, 2009
AIG paid $78 million to sponsor Manchester United
Sunday’s news that the American International Group (AIG) was paying out $165 million in executive bonuses elicited universal outrage from politicians and media commentators. The story garnered so much attention that it overwhelmed a much bigger bit of news that AIG let slip the same day: the names of the banks and others to whom AIG passed on the billions it received from taxpayers. The latest round of executive bonuses, after all, represented a mere one tenth of one percent of the $173 billion in bailout funds AIG has received so far. Keeping in mind that this is taxpayer money and that the American people now own 80% of AIG, here are some facts about where the money went.
Foreign banks received $50.2 billion, U.S. banks got $38.8 billion and $12.1 billion went to municipal bonds. That leaves $72 billion still unaccounted for.
Among the biggest recipients:
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: $24 billion
Goldman Sachs: $12.9 billion
Société Générale of France: $11.9 billion
Deutsche Bank of Germany: $11.8 billion
Barclays of Great Britain: $8 billion
UBS of Switzerland: $5 billion
BNP Paribas of France: $4.9 billion
Noticeably missing from the list are banks from China, Japan and other non-European nations. Did AIG not deal with banks from Asian countries or are they included in the unaccounted for $72 billion?
AIG Faces Growing Wrath Over Payouts (by Liam Pleven, Serena Ng and Sudeep Reddy, Wall Street Journal)
A.I.G. Lists Firms It Paid With Taxpayer Money (by Mary Williams Walsh, New York Times)
Aggregated Payments (Devil’s Advocate, New York Times)
Counterparties Receiving AIG Payments (AIG) (PDF)
Bonus Money at Troubled A.I.G. Draws Heavy Criticism (by Edmund L. Andrews and Peter Baker, New York Times)
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