The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced the last sale of the remaining securities in the American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) Maiden Lane III portfolio, and taxpayers might want to pay attention to the notion that they made money on this part of the AIG bailout.

The result today is a net gain of approximately $6.6 billion, and that includes $737 million in accrued interest on the New York Fed’s loan to ML III.  Net proceeds from past sales and cash flows from the securities enabled the full repayment of the New York Fed’s loan, plus interest, back on June 14, 2012 and on July 16, 2012.

Today’s announcement follows the successful wind-down of Maiden Lane II, which resulted in a net gain of approximately $2.8 billion.  That is supposedly for the taxpayer.  Today’s news also follows the January 2011 termination of the New York Fed’s extension of credit to AIG, which is said to have produced roughly $8.2 billion in interest and fees.

When all of these payments and repayments have been taken into account, the New York Fed said that its total net profit (to taxpayers) for the assistance to AIG came to $17.7 billion.

NY Fed president Bill Dudley called it “the end of an important chapter—our assistance to AIG—that was undertaken to stabilize the financial system in the midst of the financial crisis.”

This news might not stop the blame game against AIG and might not stop outrage against Wall Street, banks, and insurance giants.  That being said, $17.7 billion in total profits for taxpayers is not a bad return for the effort that was undertaken three and four years ago.

JON C. OGG

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