AIG's Greenberg Trumpets 2000 as a Year of Growth.

Nearly 800 people crammed the 8th-floor employee cafeteria of American International Group Inc.'s headquarters on Wall Street for the company's annual shareholders meeting.

MG, which saw its first-quarter income rise 15.2% to $1.57 billion, is "off to a good start in the current year," said Maurice R. Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer.

In 2000, AIG's general insurance business had about $3.5 billion in operating income, the life insurance segment registered $3.55 billion, financial services had $1.3 billion, and asset management recorded $430 million.

Greenberg said AIG is on course to continue its growth through good products, strong pricing, acquisitions and development of distribution channels. "The year 2000 was a very exciting year in many ways," he said. "It was a tough year--competition continues to be keen around the world--but we've made strategic acquisitions, including in the first maintain Sorema's portfolio of property/casualty reinsurance, written primarily in Europe, North America and Asia, after the acquisition.

Pennsylvania Regulator Seizes Control of Reliance Insurance

Pennsylvania regulators have put Reliance Insurance Co. into rehabilitation, effectively placing the troubled insurer under the state's control.

M. Diane Koken, the state's insurance commissioner, said her department made the move after determining Reliance "has been unable to restore it-quarter of 2001."

He said AIG's acquisition of HSB, the parent of Hartford Steam Boiler, gave it access to a staff of experts in power-generation and equipment-breakdown coverages, which already is paying off, notably in new markets such as China.

Greenberg also cited Chiyoda Life, a troubled Japanese life insurance company that AIG acquired and renamed AIG Star Life. He said Chiyoda, a company with $20 billion in assets and 7,000 agents, has become a valuable distribution tool for MAI in the lucrative Japanese life market. AIG took over Chiyoda in April. The company is now marketing about 1,000 cancer policies a day, with an average value of $400 a policy, he said.

The AIG and American General Corp. merger agreement was another key move. "For some time, we have said that we wanted to buy a significant domestic life company," Greenberg said. "It gives us tremendous new distribution that we can cross-market products through."

self to sound financial condition. The rehabilitation order, granted by Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court on May 29, went into effect immediately.

"Rehabilitation will enable us to immediately protect and preserve for policyholders all of Reliance's assets," Koken said, noting that she had consultants at Reliance's Philadelphia offices "beginning our intensive review of the company's finances.

That review, which may take weeks or months, will determine whether the company remains in rehabilitation or is placed in liquidation.