Snoopy flees Sifi status, but what about AIG?

Peter Hancock, AIG’s CEO, might be feeling under some renewed pressure. That is because of influential events taking place within another large US insurer which, like AIG, has been deemed a Systemically Important Financial Institution (Sifi).

US life insurer MetLife (ie. Snoopy) has announced a plan to split itself up, in order to create a leaner organisation. Hancock has faced similar pressure from disruptive investor Carl Icahn, aimed at creating shareholder momentum to break up AIG, which Icahn thinks is “too big to succeed”.

In a decision partly driven by a strategic review, MetLife said its Sifi designation was an important factor in considering a breakup. The changes planned at MetLife are similar in scale to those Icahn has pushed for at AIG, and which have, thus far, been resisted by Hancock.

In recent months AIG has cleaved some regional business units from the company and made cuts to its headcount, particularly at senior management level. Meanwhile, MetLife plans to spin off a substantial portion of its US retail segment, while looking at structural alternatives such as a public offering of shares in an independent, publicly traded company, a spin-off, or a sale.