NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — American International Group Inc. chief executive officer Robert Benmosche said that he told the insurer's derivatives employees to focus on maximising the value of assets they are unwinding over speed in exiting the trades.

Benmosche, 65, the former MetLife Inc. CEO, held several employee town hall meetings since being named last month as the insurer's fifth CEO since 2005. He replaced Edward Liddy, who announced he would step down in May. Here are selected remarks Benmosche made during an August 11 meeting in Houston for life insurance workers, according to a record obtained by Bloomberg.

On the employees unwinding AIG's derivative contracts:

"I told them yesterday that my biggest concern is you're selling too fast and you're being taken by Wall Street. I don't want to feed Goldman Sachs' bonus pool anymore. I don't want to feed Morgan Stanley's bonus pool anymore. I want to feed ours. In order to do that, you've got to stop giving this stuff away. You've got to ask for decent prices or we'll wait."

"So, we're talking about maybe if they get enough time to do this right, we're talking about possibly $4 billion to $5 billion more in profit that they could earn back from what they lost."

On telling government officials he won't liquidate AIG:

"If you were me, would you want to sell all the parts right away or would you wait until the parts get bigger than the whole and then begin to sell? And so I said to our government, 'If you think I'm coming here to liquidate the company, I won't take the job'.

"The right thing is running all of these companies within AIG effectively and then begin to sell them. Because we do have to sell some. It's too big a company. This is too big a company. But we've got to sell it for the right price at the right time."

On whether AIG units would benefit from being separated from the parent:

"I think you're kidding yourself. One, it's not going to be so easy to separate. Number two, all of you got a lot of benefit from being part of AIG. I was your competitor. You've got a lot of advantage, especially in the fixed-annuity arena. Another is guarantees. When you're selling against somebody, it's tough. And you've got the rating. And so, it's not a question of you separating from AIG."

On the AIG brand, which Liddy called "thoroughly wounded":

"My sense is, one day, if AIG does well, starts to pay back the debt, AIG's name may come back. Does that mean we want to go back to the name on the building and all the other stuff? That will be up to you to decide."

On his pay, which includes a $7 million annual salary:

"I am very easy when it comes to doing business, but I'm just not cheap. So if you want me, you can have me, but you've got to pay. And you have to pay a lot, not because I need the money. I've been very successful in my life. I have money in spite of all the stocks that I own and everything down. I have more than enough money for my kids and for me and for my grandchildren and their grandchildren. But the money is about what I am worth, and what my job is worth to be your leader. And that sets the tone for all of you in this room."

On what he told government officials about how long it will take to repay loans within AIG's $182.5 billion bailout:

"I met with all of them and I said, 'It will take much, much longer than you think, but you'll get your money'. And I said, 'If you don't agree with me, tell them not to hire me'. I must have said that a dozen times."