Enter the quiet giant

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: Mr Willumstad will have to try to limit the damage from recently launched regulatory probes into the way those swaps were valued.

But perhaps most difficult will be navigating the increasingly choppy waters of insurance markets. The property-and-casualty industry—which AIG and Berkshire Hathaway dominate in America—is entering a downturn. With stockmarkets languishing, life insurance and annuities may suffer, too.

AIG has suffered heavy losses on its investment portfolio. For all his skill at managing a financial conglomerate, Mr Willumstad has little hands-on experience of insurance. Nor is his background in the sort of derivatives that are causing AIG such agony. He is unlikely to get much leeway from large shareholders, especially the influential group that pushed for a completely fresh face at the top—and they will not be thrilled that the firm’s battered share price continued to fall in the days after his appointment. But if he can pull off his first—and, in all likelihood, last—stab at running a financial colossus it will have been worth the wait.