Pay czar Feinberg asks AIG to withhold bonus payments

The Obama administration's pay czar Kenneth Feinberg has asked struggling insurance giant American International Group (AIG) to withhold some of the bonuses promised to its employees.

According to reports, Feinberg has informally advised the New York-based insurance and financial services conglomerate not to pay the full $198 million employees expect to receive.

Last week the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a top US labor group, has urged Feinberg to stop any retirement payments to Bank of America (BoA) chief executive Ken Lewis, who is to leave the company by year-end (See: Union lobbies to trim BoA chief's severance package).

Feinberg, a Washington lawyer, was appointed by US president Barack Obama in June to rule on pay packages for the top 25 executives at the seven companies that received the most expensive bailouts under treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARF).

These are AIG, Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Chrysler Corp., General Motors Corp., Chrysler Financial and GMAC Financial Services Inc.

Feinberg's decision about executive-pay packages at these companies may be released any day.