New AIG chief to have turnaround plan by Sept

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Robert Willumstad, the newly appointed chief executive at American International Group Inc (AIG.N), told Reuters on Sunday he would spend the next three months meeting and working with AIG's regulators, rating agencies and top managers around the globe.

By early September, he plans to take everything he has gleaned from those meetings, and craft a turnaround plan for AIG, the world's largest insurer. He'll deliver that first to his fellow directors, then to investors, he said, in an interview hours after he was given the nod for AIG's top spot.

Former AIG CEO Martin Sullivan stepped down after three years at the helm of the world's largest insurer, the company said on Sunday. He is the latest in a string of Wall Street chiefs who have left their jobs amid large losses from risky mortgage bets.

Willumstad, a veteran of giant bank Citigroup (C.N), said he left Citi in 2005, where he had been chief operating officer, with his sights set on becoming a public company chief.

He joined AIG's board in 2006 as chairman, and will retain that title, in addition to being CEO. He said while his background was in consumer finance, various Citi insurance businesses including life insurer Primerica, and property-casualty insurer Travelers Group, which merged with Citi a decade ago but is now independent, had reported to him when he was chief operating officer.

"I am quite familiar with the insurance business," he said, adding in his experience as AIG chairman over the past two years.

Willumstad said high on his to-do list as AIG CEO was finding a new finance chief after AIG last month said chief financial officer Steven Bensinger would move into a new role as vice chairman, financial services.

He said a search was well under way, and external candidates with experience in financial services were being considered.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)