Evan Greenberg ? the last insurance executive standing from his embattled family ? believes he is not the focus of investigator attention that has brought down his father and brother in a wide industry probe.

Jeffrey Greenberg, Evan Greenberg's older brother, lost his top post at leading broker Marsh & McLennan last year after the company was charged with bid rigging and steering in a damning civil suit from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Then in March of this year, their father, Maurice 'Hank' Greenberg, was ousted as CEO of giant commercial insurer American International Group ? after investigations by Mr. Spitzer and other regulators uncovered questionable finite risk dealings.

ACE itself has been under a cloud after it was named in the Spitzer suit against Marsh last October.

In short order the company announced its own internal investigation was being led by outside counsel, former US attorney Mary Jo White.

The findings of ACE's own probe had been slated for release in February. Mr. Greenberg yesterday said ACE continued to cooperate with investigators, with numerous US states, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice all probing business practices within the sector. ACE itself has received 43 subpoenas as part of the investigation.

Mr. Greenberg said that while some problems had been uncovered in the first internal investigation it did not appear widespread. ACE operates in more than 50 countries around the globe.

Yesterday as ACE revealed another internal investigation of its finite risk transactions had been launched, Mr. Greenberg predicted that review should be wound up within a month.

That investigation follows the broad US investigation widening late last year to this type of insurance product, and whether insurers were using the policies to burnish financial results. Mr. Greenberg suppressed speculation that a third investigation could be more personal, after a question on whether investigators might comb Mr. Greenberg's career history at AIG where he worked until 2000.

Two ACE employees implicated in last year's allegations of illegal bid rigging with Marsh have been fired ? one of whom pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour charge in the Spitzer investigation ? and two other employees were suspended. Earlier this year, Susan Rivera, the former head of ACE's largest US operation stepped down amid speculation her sudden departure was tied to the matter.

A civil suit against both ACE and Marsh from Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal was previously said by ACE to be "without merit".

Mr. Greenberg ? talking with analysts on an earnings call after ACE disclosed a profit in the first quarter of $433 million on Tuesday night ? said a review of finite risk transactions had been done 18 months ago.

"On the face of it, we were not concerned with anything", he said of the review done by outside counsel and internal legal and accounting teams.

Now the company is "taking a step further...we are looking in every frigging corner" Mr. Greenberg said, including scouring e-mails related to finite risk transactions.

He said ACE continues to write finite risk business in both Bermuda and the US though it is "slow as you can imagine". Mr. Greenberg declined to answer analyst questions on how far back the internal probe extended, and if it included transactions with its former financial guaranty unit ? Assured Guaranty Ltd. ? which was spun off in an IPO last year. ACE retains a 35 percent stake in the former unit. "Please don't read anything in to this but I have to shut off the comments on finite," he told analysts.

Mr. Greenberg took up the reins for ACE last year from decade-long chief Brian Duperreault, who remains the company's chairman.

Mr. Greenberg came to ACE in November 2001, assuming leadership of its global reinsurance operations. In 2002 his executive responsibility was expanded to include all of ACE's international operations, only to be given oversight for ACE on a day to day basis when named COO in June 2003. He became CEO last May.

Both Mr. Greenberg and Mr. Duperreault joined ACE after long careers with at AIG. At separate times during their careers both were speculated to be possible heirs to the senior Greenberg, who ruled over AIG for 37 years by the time he was ousted last month.

Both Evan Greenberg and Jeffrey Greenberg held senior positions under their father at AIG but each eventually decided to follow a career path at other insurance firms rather than await their father's retirement.

Yesterday analyst Charles Gates from Credit First Suisse Boston asked Mr. Greenberg if he felt he could become a subject of AIG's investigation, with the ongoing probe going back years into the company's business transactions, including periods when he held the second-in-command post of AIG chief operating officer.

"You know Charlie I can't speculate on that. That is a question to ask the regulators. I feel pretty comfortable frankly, I'm focused on my business, I'm focused on ACE and I don't really spend my time thinking about that."

Mr. Greenberg said he had "no indication that I am the focus of attention" of regulators investigating AIG.

He told those on the call that ACE had completed steps to comply with section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOx). Although maintaining that SOx was "too costly, prescriptive and burdensome" it had made ACE a "better company".

Mr. Maurice Greenberg is the only insurance executive to have been publicly vocal in calls for SOx to be done away with. The corporate governance regulations rose out of such high profile corporate scandals as Enron and WorldCom.

On Tuesday night, ACE said its first quarter earnings declined three percent to $422 million from $433 million during the same period a year ago.

Business expanded with gross premiums written of $4.5 billion during the period, up from $4.5 billion. And net premiums were $3.4 billion for the quarter, compared to the $3.2 billion in the first quarter, 2004.

ACE CFO Phil Bancroft said the company had reduced its reinsurance recoverables level significantly.