World's top insurer American International Group (AIG) would be allowed to use US$20 billion of its subsidiary company assets to stay in business, New York Governor David Paterson announced Monday.

Paterson said New York state officials have reached a deal that would allow AIG to access 20 billion dollars of its own capital by shifting funds from insurance subsidiaries to the parent company. And they have also asked the U.S. federal government to provide additional funding to AIG.

Also on Monday, the New York Federal Reserve held meetings on the situation of AIG with representatives of the U.S. Treasury Department, financial services firms and state officials.

AIG, which employs 8,500 people in New York, refused private equity infusion and struggled to seek capital as the Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch was forced to sell itself to Bank of America for 50 billion dollars under the pressure of regulators. The above three have put the Wall Street in the worst crisis not seen in years. New York stocks plummeted on Monday with Dow Jones shedding more than 500 points.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16,2008)