WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To many Americans, it is a matter of common sense: traders who failed so spectacularly at their jobs that they nearly brought down the global economy should be fired, not rewarded with handsome bonuses.

Yet AIG, the fallen insurer, paid out an additional $100 million this month, much of it to the very financial products division whose rampant risk-taking took the firm to the brink.

And there is another $75 million coming.

So far, the government has yet to enact concrete steps to prevent it from happening all over again.

Regulators still lack the authority to wind down large financial firms, and the private sector continues to use compensation contracts that preclude renegotiation when performance sours.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has called on Congress to pass a tax on financial institutions, which he says could be used to help recoup the money.

But experts say this approach ignores a key lesson from the crisis: the need to ensure that contracts for executive pay are written in such a way that encourages prudent behaviour and accountability, not unabashed risk-taking.

"All pay plans should require checks and balances, including the use of 'circuit breakers' which prohibit any payments when the company is in a financial crisis or similar problem situation - ie AIG and most of Wall Street," said Paul Dorf, a managing director at consulting firm Compensation Resources.

Many analysts say such restrictions, sometimes known as clawbacks, should extend well beyond finance, pointing to scandals at firms like Enron and Worldcom.

Geithner, and pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, say that while lamentable, the AIG payments must legally be honored. President Barack Obama has argued that high executive pay is a natural outcome of the "free market".