chartis

chartis

American International Group Inc., the insurer bailed out by the U.S., named Kristian Moor as chief executive officer of a rebranded property-casualty business.

AIG has chosen “Chartis” as the new name for AIU Holdings LLC, which was placed into a special purpose vehicle to prepare for a possible public offering of the business. Moor will continue to serve as president, AIG said today in a statement distributed by Business Wire.

CEO Edward Liddy is seeking to distinguish the firm’s businesses from the AIG name that he said in March was “thoroughly wounded and disgraced” by four U.S. bailouts valued at a combined $182.5 billion. The company previously said it would change the name of a unit selling annuities in the U.S. to Western National Life and has removed the AIG logo from a building in New York.

Assigning Moor to run the renamed unit will “advance the organization toward its goal of operating independence,” AIG said in the statement. The company has also said it would place two non-U.S. life insurers into special purpose vehicles.

Chartis is derived from the Greek word for map, the company said, and sells protection against worker injuries, storm damage and lawsuits. The company competes against carriers including Chubb Corp. and Travelers Cos., which remained profitable in the recession by sidestepping the investments in subprime home loans that hobbled AIG.

Sales Slump

Policy sales for property and casualty insurers have fallen as consumers reduce purchases amid the recession and prices have dropped as insurers compete for market position. U.S. commercial insurance rates dropped 4.9 percent in the three months ended June 30 and have fallen in every quarter since 2004, the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers said last week.

AIG is the subject of an examination by New York and Pennsylvania into claims it is distorting the market by charging too little for coverage. Competitors including Chubb and Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. have said that U.S. backing gives AIG the ability to write unprofitable business.

State regulators, brokers and buyers of business coverage “have seen no indications that AIG’s commercial property- casualty insurers are selling coverage at prices inadequate to cover the risk involved,” the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, said in March. AIG has said it is pricing its coverage responsibly.

Moor, 50, joined AIG in 1981. He previously served as executive vice president and oversaw the insurer’s property- casualty unit in the U.S. and Canada. Moor has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Bryant University in Rhode Island and a master’s of business administration from Pace University in New York, according to the statement.