Cassano Defends AIG Swaps, Lewis Says ‘We Were Wrong’

Uh huh.

clipped from www.businessweek.com Joseph J. Cassano, whose derivative bets on subprime loans forced American International Group Inc. into a U.S. bailout, defended the deals while the insurer’s chief risk officer said the firm was “wrong” on the trades. Cassano, 55, head of AIG’s Financial Products unit until March 2008, said he “never compromised our standards” on the credit-default swaps blamed for the firm’s losses, according to remarks submitted to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Three years ago, AIG executives couldn’t envision a “scenario within any kind of realm or reason that would see us losing $1 in any of those transactions,” Cassano told analysts then.