2. How did AIG use credit default swaps to credit-enhance mortgage-backed securities? At its apogee in 2007, American International Group (AIG) had 74 million customers, employed 116,000 people worldwide, and generated $110 billion in revenue with an asset base of US$1 trillion. Approximately half of its revenue came from general insurance – primarily property and casualty – with the other half generated by life insurance, financial services, aircraft leasing, and asset management. AIG traced its roots to Shanghai (China), where Cornelius Vander Starr established a small insurance agency in 1919 under the name of American Asiatic Underwriters.