Achieving “sustainable growth” is a priority for AIG, according to CEO Peter Hancock.

He says lessons learned from the 2008 financial crisis are playing a crucial role in plotting the insurer’s course.

AIG required a huge government bailout to avert a collapse during the crisis.

“Knowing how to set the right balance between profitability, growth and risk is something we have learned and are applying in our thinking,” Mr Hancock, who became CEO last September, told an investor conference in New York last week.

“It’s recognising that we need a more nuanced set of goals.”

The days of pursuing profit at all cost and allowing divisions to compete against each other are over, as AIG continues with its post-crisis revamp.

Its initial $US85 billion ($111.2 billion) government bailout eventually ballooned to more than $US182 billion ($238.2 billion).

AIG has “been through a period of transition like no large company that I’m aware of, in terms of the degree to which we have focused it on core competence and exited distractions”, Mr Hancock said.

“If you look at the scale of that, it was taking our balance sheet from a highly [leveraged] balance sheet pre-crisis to one of the most conservative balance sheets in large cap financial services today.

“We’re now shifting to a focus on sustainable growth and making sure each of the components of AIG, which today is still by many measures the world’s largest insurer… to make sure that all of those pieces fit together in a way that best serves our clients.”

AIG’s net profit fell 17.1% to $US7.53 billion ($9.78 billion) last calendar year. In the March quarter, net profit gained 53% to $US2.47 billion ($3.21 billion).

“On balance, I think it’s very important in this business to have the confidence of your policyholders,” Mr Hancock said.

“The importance of maintaining a balance sheet with a high degree of reliability through the cycles, whether it be credit cycles or insurance cycles, is very important to our clients.”