Less than two weeks after being replaced as CEO, Mr Greenberg, 79, announced last week he will also step down this week as chairman of the giant insurer. He will be replaced by Executive Committee Chairman Frank G Zarb.

Faced with investigations by the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, the New York Insurance Department and New York Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer, Mr Greenberg – who had run the company since 1967 – was finally brought undone by a financial reinsurance deal the company made with General Re.

Mr Greenberg’s attorney, David Boies, said in a letter to the AIG board that Mr Greenberg “recognises the need to promptly and co-operatively resolve all inquiries and investigations by regulators and other authorities”.

Mr Spitzer, whose original investigation of issues surrounding commissions at broker Marsh led to the AIG probe, said “the wise actions of the AIG board will help set this investigation on a path to resolution”.

Mr Greenberg will meet investigators on April 12 to discuss the General Re contracts, which allegedly inflated the company’s profit announcement. The investigators will interview Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of General Re’s owner, Berkshire Hathaway, on April 11.