Annoyed by Feds, AIG CEO Threatens to Quit

Just 3 months after taking the job, AIG CEO Robert Benmosche is threatening to storm out in a huff. At a directors’ meeting last week the voluble Benmosche, formerly of MetLife, told colleagues he was “done” with trying to operate the 80% taxpayer-owned company under federal supervision, particularly with regard to compensation. He made a similar stink in August when his own $10.5 million pay package was questioned, and won that battle.

Benmosche has had some success in restructuring AIG, which has been in the black the two most recent quarters, but paying back $90 billion in taxpayer loans is a long-term battle he says he can't win without a pay increase for execs, who he says have taken a 91% cut since last year. “Bob feels he is in an impossible situation,” one tells the Wall Street Journal, which notes that he hasn't yet appealed pay czar Kenneth Feinberg’s rejection of the increase. AIG director and former Northwest CEO Douglas Steenland is being floated as a replacement. (More AIG stories.)