Golub says insurer "shouldn't exist"

Former AIG chairman Harvey Golub has said the insurer should be broken up in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Golub said the firm's two main businesses - the Chartis non-life unit and the SunAmerica Financial Group life division - "have no strategic fit" and that "AIG shoudln't exist" in the longer term.

“When it gets broken apart, as I think ultimately it will, both of those pieces may unlock much greater value,” Golub told Bloomberg.

Golub left AIG last July following a clash with chief executive Robert Benmosche (pictured).

AIG has recently completed a refinancing programme, under which it has repaid the US government loans it received as part of its bail-out in 2008. As a resullt of the refinancing, The US treasury now owns 92% of the company, which it is expected to divest over time.