NEW YORK (AP) â The federal bailout of insurance giant American International Group Inc. has benefited at least two dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions who collected some $50 billion, according to media reports Saturday. AIG â once the world's largest insurer â is paying money to its counterparties because it had agreed to guarantee them against losses from credit default swaps they had invested in. --------------------------------------- damn , you mean they didn't just put that $ in a big brown bag? They actually paid it to who they owed it? Shocking. Bizzaro reporting on this one.