AIG's CEO Liddy: We don't need more government money

CHARLOTTE -- American International Group's CEO Ed Liddy is planning to tell Congress his embattled insurance company does not need more bailout money.

In testimony he is scheduled to deliver to Congress on Wednesday, Liddy said the New York-based firm has "reduced, but not yet eliminated, the systemic risk that AIG presents to the global financial system."

In prepared remarks to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Liddy describes a plan the company devised that would put "AIG's troubles behind it, repay the monies that we owe the American taxpayer, and secure an outcome that helps to put the American economy back on track."

AIG has received $182.5 billion in financial support from the government since September.

Liddy said his company is stabilizing and won't need further government support. But he cautioned that the economy would be a factor in how much time will be needed to carry out AIG's recovery program.

"How long the plan will ultimately take will very much depend on how quickly and how strongly the global economy recovers," Liddy said, according to the prepared remarks. "Because we are all committed to ensuring that the mistakes of the past are not repeated, we must take the time and exercise the diligence to do this restructuring properly."

The U.S. government provided AIG with an $85 billion loan in September. As market conditions worsened and losses piled up at the insurer, the government revised and expanded its loan package to AIG several times.

The package of loans now totals nearly $180 billion after being expanded in March when AIG reported a fourth-quarter loss of $61.7 billion, the largest ever quarterly corporate loss in U.S. history. AIG reported a narrower loss of $4.35 billion in the first quarter, versus a loss of $7.81 billion in the same period a year ago.

As part of the loan package, the government has also taken a roughly 80% stake in the huge insurance company.

AIG was devastated not by its traditional insurance operations, but by its financial products business, which underwrote risky credit derivatives contracts known as credit default swaps. The swaps are essentially insurance contracts protecting an investor against default on an underlying investment, such as mortgage-backed securities.