AIG, which is the target of a lawsuit by the New York Attorney General's Office for civil fraud, is reported to be considering a $1.5 billion settlement with the state after an admission in May that some transactions were listed improperly.

Mr. Johnson said that the AIG adjustments involved in the restatement for the National Association of Insurance commissioners "was a long involved process with regulators," which was interrupted so the company could close books and records in January for 2005.

He explained that Pennsylvania was the lead regulatory agency overseeing the restatement because the department is the lead regulator for the commercial property-casualty pool that includes AIG's Pittsburgh-based National Union Fire Company.

After the combined filing has been submitted, Mr. Johnson said that it is the company's intention that all its subsequent filings "will be timely in 2006."

The combined filing provides a different financial picture of a company than that provided by its individual units, which are subject to the regulations of whatever state they are domiciled in.

In 2003, for example, totaling the assets listed for all the individual AIG companies adds up to $80.3 billion, but the combined report--which eliminates double-counting of inter-company ownership of equity holdings and other transactions reduces AIG total assets by $10.1 billion to $70.1 billion.

Unlike their GAAP filing--in which New York-based AIG shows stockholders the continuous growth value of their portfolios--the statutory filing provides proof that policyholders' claims can be satisfied and that capital surplus and reserves are healthy for the life of policies.

Differences between statutory and GAAP accounting treatment can impact assets, liabilities and income statement items. For example, under statutory accounting, insurers must report the entire acquisition expense for a policy when the policy is written, whereas under less conservative GAAP accounting, a deferred cost treatment is allowed.