AIG Counter-Party List Is Heavy On Foreign Banks

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Last week, we rounded up some reports from last fall that named some of the banks that AIG did business with on those credit-default swaps — and therefore offered a first pass at where the fallen insurance behemoth’s latest round of bailout money might ultimately be going.

But over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal offered some updated reporting (sub. req.) on that score. It obtained a confidential document listing banks that have been paid a total of roughly $50 billion by AIG, since it was first bailed out last fall.

Here’s the Journal‘s list:

* Goldman Sachs
* Deutsche Bank
* Merrill Lynch
* Société Générale
* Calyon
* Barclays
* Rabobank
* Danske
* HSBC
* Royal Bank of Scotland
* Banco Santander
* Morgan Stanley
* Wachovia
* Bank of America
* Lloyds Banking Group

That includes $6 billion each for Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

As you can see, there’s some overlap there with what we told you the Journal and the New York Times had previously reported.

But the new list shows how many of AIG’s counter-parties were European — a fact that’s likely to add to frustration, among members of Congress and the public, that US taxpayer dollars are ultimately being used to save foreign banks from the consequences of their disastrous decisions to do credit default swaps with AIG. It’s also likely to further fuel congressional demands that the federal government identify all of AIG’s trading partners.

Latest Muckraker
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: