AIG RELEASES DETAILS OF PROBLEM DERIVATIVES

Insurer AIG at the weekend made public the details of the $62.1bn in derivative transactions that were central to the second stage of the federal bailout of the insurer in November 2008. In a filing with the SEC, AIG said that it was releasing the unredacted documents owing to "recent public disclosure of the full contents of Schedule A". Earlier last week, Rep Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, leaked the information following a hearing on AIG's bailout. According to e-mails released by the committee, the New York branch of the Federal Reserve had urged AIG not to disclose details of its transactions with counterparties on the derivative transactions. "To justify keeping these details hidden, the New York Fed suggested that the sky would fall should this information become public", Rep Issa said. "Public disclosure and transparency should be treated as a first priority".