State regulation “not to blame” for AIG collapse

An academic said several federal regulatory agencies with authority over AIG were “asleep at the wheel”

As proponents of US federal insurance regulation continue to invoke the collapse of American International Group (AIG) as evidence of the significant risk posed by insurers to the financial system, Scott E. Harrington, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, offered a contrary perspective to reporters and congressional staffers at a Capitol Hill briefing last week.