Many of the executives at US insurer AIG who received bonuses have said they will repay the money.

Of the 20 biggest recipients, 15 have already agreed to do so, according to New York’s Attorney General. Andrew Cuomo added that he hoped to recoup all the bonuses paid to American citizens, amounting to about half of the 120 million euro total. President Barack Obama had echoed public outrage that AIG was handing out perks despite receiving billions of taxpayer bail-out dollars. Meanwhile, Obama has relieved some of the pressure on his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner by appointing his deputy and filling two other key Treasury posts. Geithner yesterday unveiled details of his public-private plan to soak up banks’ toxic assets and ease the fear that has been paralysing credit markets. Defending his plan he said: “We’re not going to get through this unless the market is willing to take more risk. The risk now for us is that after a long period of people…taking too much risk that they didn’t understand, they’re taking to little now.” The plan got an early thumbs up from Wall Street. The Dow Jones jumped nearly seven percent, led by banking shares, and that optimism spread to Asian markets.More about: AIG, Financial Crisis, USA

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