AIG Chairman Rejects Asbestos Trust Fund

American International Group Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg said Monday that a Senate bill to create a trust fund of at least $108 billion to compensate asbestos victims was “doomed to die.”

“In my judgment, it has no chance to go anyplace,” said the head of the world’s largest insurer by market value during a conference sponsored by the International Insurance Society in New York. “We do need reform for asbestos, but not that bill.”

Greenberg’s rejection underscores insurers’ opposition to the bill, which also faces threats from Democrats and organized labor. The American Insurance Assn., which had been pushing for reform that would cap insurers’ costs and eliminate legal expenses, withdrew its support when the Senate Judiciary Committee last week increased the amount that manufacturers and insurers would contribute to the fund to $52 billion each from $45 billion. The panel voted to send the measure to the full Senate.

Greenberg said in June that competitors were asking his company to pay more than its fair share.

Unlike rivals including Travelers Property Casualty Corp. and Hartford Financial Services Inc., American International hasn’t added to asbestos reserves. Greenberg has said that’s because the company didn’t sell as much insurance in the decades before asbestos was found to cause cancer.