US insurance giant AIG reported Friday fourth quarter net losses of 8.9 billion dollars and net losses of 10.9 billion dollars for all of 2009 -- a dramatic reduction from 2008 levels.
The insurer fell back into the red after two consecutive quarters in the black, with far steeper losses than market expectations.
But the losses were still nearly 10 times less than in 2008, when AIG recorded 99.2 billion dollars in losses.
The catastrophic results prompted the Federal Reserve to provide an 85-billion-dollar emergency loan to stave off a potentially calamitous collapse in September 2008, in what ultimately became the first stage of a government bailout worth more than 180 billion dollars.
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