Meanwhile, the Obama administration observes the fifth anniversary of the financial crisis. President Barack Obama made a nationwide address on the issue Monday, noting that Sept. 15 was the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse. 

While the focus was on Lehman, the government's involvement in AIG's resurrection was more intense. 

It was the evening of Sept. 16, 2008 that Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott Alvarez announced that AIG's board had agreed to sell 79.9 percent of the company to the Fed in exchange for $85 billion in cash. 

A National Economic Council report cataloguing Obama administration and Federal Reserve actions notes, "Rather than lose tens of billions of dollars, the government turned a $22.7 billion return on its investments in AIG. Despite widespread predictions that the American taxpayers stood to lose billions on their $182.3 billion of assistance to AIG, the administration successfully recouped $205 billion, for a total positive return to the taxpayers of $22.7 billion, and AIG's loan to the Federal Reserve was fully repaid." 

There has been fallout from AIG's near collapse and subsequent rescue. AIG has already been designated by the Financial Stability Oversight Council as a systemically important financial institution, which will subject the insurer to oversight by the Fed as well as state regulators. This will bring much higher capital requirements and additional oversight on everything from consumer protection to market conduct, according to industry officials.

AIG is the first insurer to be overseen by the Fed. Insurance has been strictly under state oversight since the founding of the Republic. 

In recent comments, Robert Benmosche, president and CEO of AIG, explained that, at the end of 2014, or thereabouts, "AIG will be under that same capital review as the banks are. 

"And that's not only what our capital ratio numbers are, but it's the quality of the systems that produce the numbers. So it's a very different game we're going play in 2014 and beyond once we're a part of the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) test, so then the Federal Reserve will have a lot to say about what we ultimately do and their satisfaction with what the numbers are. So being under CCAR and being a SIFI will be a different level of regulation than what we are [under] today." 

If the New York DFS now finds AIG's risk-management activities insufficient, that may subject the company to heightened state supervision as well. Analysts fear that may curb investing and limit earnings if DFS decides to rein in certain business lines or activities. 

Ron Klug, a spokesman for the DFS, declined comment. 

Jon Diat, a spokesman for AIG, noted that the company had said in 2011 that it had completed its active wind-down of the Financial Products unit's legacy positions. 

"AIG completed the active wind down of the AIGFP portfolios long ago and has eliminated 93 percent of the unit's legacy positions from approximately $1.8 trillion in net notional exposure at December 31, 2008 to $122 billion in net notional exposure at March 31, 2013," Diat said in providing the AIG statement. 

He said the remaining legacy positions "are largely low risk and are being wound down thoughtfully, according to rigorous risk management processes and controls, and in the best interests of all stakeholders, including shareholders. 

"We are highly committed to sound risk management practices and working closely with our regulators, including the Federal Reserve, to ensure all of our business practices meet and exceed the expectations of our stakeholders," the statement said. 

AIG needed the Fed bailout in September 2008 because margin calls on credit default swaps AIGFP had issued to insure what was later disclosed to be $2.77 trillion in mortgage-related securities were being made by the counterparties. 

The CDS had been purchased by banks throughout the world as well as other institutional investors. 

The Fed was later forced to increase its aid to AIG. This included providing cash by taking on speculative securities, collateralized by the reserves of AIG's 13 life insurance subsidiaries, as well as troubled securities backed by mortgages AIG had taken back in exchange for the cancellation of outstanding CDS. These securities were contained in facilities called Maiden Lane II and III that were established and managed by the Fed. The securities have since been sold, with a profit on the two investments. 

The Fed later turned over its investment outside the Maiden Lane facilities to the Treasury Department in return for cash, and the Treasury sold off its interest in AIG through a series of initial public offerings that ended in 2012. 

AIG has been intensely criticized for the activities of AIGFP. Critics argue that the subsidiary took on huge risks that ultimately brought the company to the brink of insolvency even though the unit generated only six percent of AIG's total revenues.