The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Thursday that it had wound down the final remnant of its rescue of the American International Group, generating a multibillion-dollar profit in the process.
The New York Fed said that it has sold the remaining securities held in Maiden Lane III, one of two financial entities created to house the most financially shaky parts of A.I.G.'s portfolio. Over all, it generated a $6.6 billion gain from the unwinding of the portfolio.
Over the past several years, the regulator has been working to close the books on its portion of A.I.G.'s bailout, disentangling itself from a bailout that once threatened to swell up to $182 billion. It closed out another vehicle related to the insurer's rescue, Maiden Lane II, in February, earning about $2.8 billion for taxpayers.
And two months ago, the New York Fed said that it had been paid back for loans that it had extended to Maiden Lane III. All that remained was to sell off the u nderlying securities, a task left to the regulator's advisers at BlackRock.
A number of firms, including A.I.G. itself, had regularly purchased some of the complex mortgage bonds that comprised Maiden Lane III. The buyers of the final batch of securities were Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Morgan Stanley.
“The completion of the sale of the Maiden Lane III portfolio marks the end of an important chapter-our assistance to A.I.G.-that was undertaken to stabilize the financial system in the midst of the financial crisis,†William C. Dudley, the New York Fed's president, said in a statement.
