PROVIDENCE – The financial crisis involving insurer American International Group Inc. may have been averted with Tuesday night’s $85 billion federal takeover (READ MORE), but state officials are keeping in place their newly formed financial “SWAT team,” to speed response to similar problems involving state funds.

“In this climate, we can’t take anything for granted,” R.I. General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio told Providence Business News.

The team – which includes Rosemary Booth Gallogly, the state budget officer; Jerome F. Williams, state director of administration; and members of the Senate and House leadership – will allow the state to respond on a moment’s notice to trouble in the financial markets, he said. “Money never sleeps, and these issues are not 9-to-5 issues.”

The state had no exposure in the collapse of either Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy late last week, or Merrill Lynch, which is being acquired by Bank of America, Caprio said in a statement earlier this week.

He confirmed, however, that about $131 million in bond money is currently held in accounts managed by ailing AIG, one of the world’s largest insurers, which the Federal Reserve this week agreed to keep afloat with a $85 billion loan, in exchange for an 80-percent ownership stake.

Rhode Island officials are preparing to release an accounting of an additional $300 million to $400 million in state funds that are being managed in a similar fashion by other financial institutions, Caprio said.

The difference: Those firms were required to post collateral to back the investments. Because of that, the money is in no danger, Caprio said. But he added that just knowing the state’s exposure is crucial in case anything should suddenly go wrong.

Several Rhode Island agencies have “guaranteed investment contracts” with AIG, agreements in which bond money is placed with an outside company so it can earn enough money to cover the interest payments as the bond money is drawn down.

Up until a few days ago, because of its strong credit rating AIG hadn’t been required to post collateral for its investments despite their “guaranteed” status. When AIG’s rating was downgraded this week, however, the insurer’s contracts required that it post collateral.

The firm seemed on the verge of collapse.

But then the government stepped in. By yesterday afternoon, when Fitch Ratings Ltd. revised its rating watch on AIG from negative to evolving, the crisis seemed to have been averted.

“Fitch believes that the agreement with the Federal Reserve provides a platform of stability for AIG’s primary operating subsidiaries and significantly curtails substantive pressure on AIG to sell assets quickly to fund potential cash calls,” the ratings service said in a statement. “Fitch believes that this will enable AIG to take a more comprehensive and deliberate approach to restructuring the company that better serves the interests of policyholders and creditors.”

For news and information from the R.I. Office of the General Treasurer, visit www.treasury.ri.gov.