Edward Liddy, chief executive of AIG, moved to defuse political opposition to the government’s latest $150bn rescue plan for the insurer, saying US taxpayers would “do very well” out of the deal.

In an interview with the Financial Times following the announcement of the revised terms for the bail-out, Mr Liddy, who took over at AIG after the first government rescue in September, said a failure of the insurer would have created mayhem in the global financial system.