AIG Wants to Get Off the Dole

AIG is planning on repaying the government early and become independent from federal overseers, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Treasury Department would turn the $49 billion it owns in AIG preferred shares into common shares, and then slowly sell them off. The government would own 90 percent of AIG, up from 79.8 percent, before the selloff, which could make a profit for the feds if AIG shares gain value. Untangling itself from the Treasury Department will take years and depends on many factors, including winning over investors skeptical that AIG can make a reliable profit from its insurance businesses. Still, the plan could be set in motion in the first half of 2011.