American International Group said its chief executive officer is to step down.

Peter Hancock will remain CEO until a successor is found, the company said today.

AIG, a New York-based global insurer with offices in Bermuda, has posted losses in four of the past six quarters, with pressure for change building from billionaire activist investors Carl Icahn and John Paulson.

“Without wholehearted shareholder support for my continued leadership, a protracted period of uncertainty could undermine the progress we have made and damage the interests of our policyholders, employees, regulators, debtholders and shareholders,” Mr Hancock said in a company statement.

Doug Steenland, AIG’s chairman, thanked Mr Hancock for his work in helping repay a $182 billion bailout from the US Government.

The chairman said Mr Hancock had “tackled the company’s most complex issues, including the repayment of AIG’s obligations to the US Treasury in full and with a profit, and is leaving AIG as a strong, focused and profitable insurance company”.

Shares of AIG were down 10 cents at $63.33 in New York trading at 2pm Bermuda time, having risen earlier on the news.

In a note to clients, Meyer Shields, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said the move was a “significant positive”.

“Of course, there aren’t too many candidates with the skills needed to turn around this troubled global company, but several successful turnarounds” have occurred in the industry, Mr Shields added.

Mr Hancock’s successor will be the seventh CEO since 2005 of a company which almost collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis.

Paul Newsome, an analyst at Sandler O’Neill & Partners, told Bloomberg News: “This was the board reacting to the poor news from the fourth-quarter results.

“The broader question is how is the management team totally going to change?” he said. “I suspect that the strategy will change, we just don’t know how yet.”