Prudential has decided to buy nationalized US insurer - American International Group's Asian business for about $35.5 billion. This would be AIG's biggest largest asset sale since the US government offered approximately $182 billion in taxpayers' money to keep the insurer afloat and avoid any 'collateral damage'.

Prudential Plc - UK's second-largest insurer has offered to pay about $35.5 billion of which $25 billion would in cash, which it would raise by issuing equity, and the remainder in stock, said the people familiar with the deal.

The move by AIG strategically makes sense and could generate proceeds, which would help reduce the oversight by Federal Reserve over AIG; the US Treasury currently owns 80 per cent of the insurer. AIG also plans to sell Alico, which primarily operates in Japan and Europe.

The insurer posted wide-than-expected net loss of $8.87 billion for the fourth quarter from $61.7 billion or $458.99 a year ago. The $65.51 a share loss included $6.7 billion for repaying Federal Reserve credit line and $1.8 billion to add to property-casualty reserves.

Greece urged to tighten its belt as EU crafts a possible lifeline

Olli Rehn - EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner is likely to ask Greece to push for further austerity moves so as to reign in the deficit 'monster', a day before as governments in European Union design a possible rescue package for the debt-laden nation.

Rehn will meet Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou amidst talk of euro-area officials devising a plan to grant Greece about €25 billion.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said that Greece shouldn't live in the illusion that taxpayers elsewhere would come to its rescue and that Greece needs put its house in order, first. Papandreou's fiscal strategy would face its litmus test the country readies a sale of as much as €5 billion 10-year notes.

Petros Christodoulou - head of Greece's government debt agency, will lead the sale by early March. The issue is not just critical to Greece's financial stability, but for the entire region as the country needs to sell €53 billion of debt in 2010. According to fund managers, Greece must offer a hefty premium of over 7 percent, the biggest premium over benchmark German debt since 1998.