NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? American International Group Inc., stripped of its AAA credit rating amid an accounting probe this year, won?t try to regain the rating, even as borrowing costs rise, Chief Financial Officer Steven Bensinger told investors.

?It has become apparent that the cost of maintaining our previous AAA rating was not justified by the incremental benefit that it provided,? Bensinger said yesterday at an investor presentation in New York. The company?s AA rating is sufficient for ?the preponderance of business that we conduct?, he said.

AIG, the world?s largest insurer, lost its AAA in March amid state and federal regulatory probes that later triggered a $3.9 billion earnings restatement. AAA companies pay less to sell debt because investors have more confidence in their ability to repay. At the same time, the top rating requires less indebtedness, which may restrict a company?s ability to finance growth and limit its return on equity.

?The value of the AAA rating is a lot less than it was in the past,? said Paul Newsome, a stock analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis who has a ?buy? rating on AIG shares.

?The downgrade didn?t really change the cost of funding that much and didn?t have a material impact on insurance product sales.?

When AIG sold $1 billion of ten-year notes yesterday, the extra yield, or spread, that investors demanded to own the debt was 15 basis points higher than it was on a comparable amount of ten-year notes sold in May 2003. A wider spread indicates less confidence in owning company debt.

Probes of possible earnings manipulation prompted AIG to remove Maurice ?Hank? Greenberg as chief executive on March 15. By the end of that month, Standard & Poor?s and Moody?s Investors Service had removed AIG from a list of only eight US companies that had AAA senior debt ratings, cutting the company one level to AA+ and Aa1, respectively.

AIG, which had a AAA from S&P since 1983, was dropped another level after raising its estimate of accounting errors. The company is rated Aa2 at Moody?s and AA at S&P and Fitch.

?We did lose the ability to participate in certain business activities in financial products and the high net worth markets,? Bensinger said yesterday. ?Still, it?s become clear to us that these ratings are sufficient for the preponderance of business that we conduct.?

AIG sold the $1 billion of ten-year notes at 80 basis points more than comparable Treasuries. The 2003 sale priced at 65 basis points more than comparable US Treasuries, according to Bloomberg data. AIG also sold $500 million of five-year notes yesterday at a spread of 62.5 basis points. Citigroup Inc. and Lehman Brothers Inc. managed the sale.