AIG SEES OPPORTUNITY TO SHED SIFI LABEL

This week’s federal court ruling that removed MetLife’s designation as a systemically important financial institution, or SIFI, could open an opportunity for AIG to have its designation stripped as well, but the group would rather seek such a change by working with regulators rather than by taking them to court, AIG chief executive Peter Hancock told CNBC on Thursday. Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” programme a day after the MetLife ruling was issued, Hancock said “the whole world was somewhat surprised” by the MetLife ruling. Hancock said that making a move to shed the SIFI label “is something we want to reserve judgement on to see how the rules ultimately get written and how they get interpreted.” Any course of action would in part depend on US District Judge Rosemary Collyer’s reasoning in the case, but that ruling remains sealed for now. Non-bank insurers are keen to have the SIFI designation lifted, as it subjects them to stiffer capital requirements and greater scrutiny by the Federal Reserve. General Electric, whose GE Capital financing division is another of the four non-bank SIFI designees, wasted no time on Thursday in making a formal request with the Financial Stability Oversight Council to have the unit’s SIFI label lifted, arguing that it has pared back its operations to a level where the designation no longer applies.