AIG Singapore Head Resigns

The head of the Singapore unit of troubled insurance giant American International Group Inc. resigned Friday after 14 years with the company.

Mark O’Dell, general manager of AIA Singapore, has left and Executive Vice President Kenneth Juneau will take over immediately, the company said Friday.

“His decision to leave the company is in no way related to the recent developments at AIG,” Mark Wilson, regional president of AIG Life Companies in Asia Pacific, said in a statement.

AIA Singapore headquarters has been flooded this week with thousands of nervous policyholders seeking to find out the status of their policies or cash them out, even after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged $85 billion loan to prop up AIG.

The company also said Friday that any policyholder who terminated their policy this week would be allowed to reinstate it during the next two weeks without penalty.

“We have received feedback that many of our customers are now more reassured of AIA Singapore’s financial position,” Wilson said. “So we have offered this policy conservation program to those policyholders who reacted to the uncertainty of recent developments at AIG.”

Less than 0.1 percent, or about 2,000, of the company’s 2 million in force policies in Singapore – a nation of 4.6 million people – have been terminated this week, the company said.

Both AIA Singapore and the central bank reiterated that the company’s policies are safe.
“AIA maintains separate insurance funds for all policies,” the company said. “AIA Singapore has more than sufficient capital and reserves above the regulatory minimum requirements to meet our obligations.”

AIG customers throughout Asia have canceled policies this week amid fears AIG would follow investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy.

AIG provides services in 130 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.