AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC

Credit risk is defined as the risk that our customers or counterparties are unable or unwilling to repay their contractual obligations when they become due. Credit risk may also result from a downgrade of a counterparty’s credit ratings or a widening of its credit spreads.

Direct and indirect credit exposures may arise from, but are not limited to, fixed income investments, equity securities, deposits, commercial paper investments, securities purchased under agreements to resell and repurchase agreements, corporate and consumer loans, leases, reinsurance and retrocessional insurance recoverables, counterparty risk arising from derivatives activities, collateral extended to counterparties, insurance risk cessions to third parties, financial guarantees, letters of credit, and certain General Insurance businesses. Our credit risk framework incorporates risk identification and measurement, risk limits, risk delegations to authorized credit professionals throughout the company, and credit reserving. Credit reserving includes but is not limited to the development of a proper framework, policies and procedures for establishing accurate identification of (i) reserves for credit losses and (ii) other than temporary impairments for securities portfolios.

We monitor and control our company-wide credit risk concentrations and attempt to avoid unwanted or excessive risk accumulations, whether funded or unfunded. To minimize the level of credit risk in some circumstances, we may require mitigants, such as third-party guarantees, reinsurance or collateral, including commercial bank-issued letters of credit and trust collateral accounts.

For additional information on our credit concentrations and credit exposures, see Investments – Credit Ratings – Available-for-Sale Investments.

Derivative Transactions

We utilize derivatives principally to enable us to hedge exposure associated with changes in levels of interest rates, currencies, credit, commodities, equity prices and other risks. Credit risk associated with derivative counterparties exists for a derivative contract when that contract has a positive fair value to us. All derivative transactions must be transacted within counterparty limits that have been approved by ERM. We evaluate counterparty credit quality via an internal analysis that is consistent with the AIG Credit Policy and, where necessary, we require credit enhancements for certain transactions and enter into offsetting and netting arrangements.

For additional information related to derivative transactions, see Note 11 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.