TAIPEI, TAIWAN - The number of people waiting at a local subsidiary of troubled global insurance giant American International Group to end their policies or get cash loans from the firm fell sharply Thursday.

A little more than 600 policyholders of Nan Shan Life Insurance, an AIG subsidiary, registered at a regional office in downtown Taipei by late afternoon. The number was half that of the previous day.

The crowd, each given a number, waited in the lobby of the high-rise building, one of the company's 18 client service centres around the island.

While a number of them were believed to be seeking loans off their policies as a way to get cash from the firm in case it went bankrupt, others were there to deal with unrelated problems.

A female shopowner from Wuku, a township outside Taipei, said she was there to use one policy to get a loan of less than 200,000 Taiwan dollars (US$6,200), but stressed her move had not been prompted by AIG's financial crisis.

"I need the money so I sought the loan. It's simple," said the woman, who gave her surname as Kang.

A Nan Shan agent said policyholders were allowed to get loans worth up to 90 percent of their policy value, but would be charged at an interest rate of 6.25-6.9 percent per annum.

"I'm not worried about AIG's financial crisis. My daughter told me it has been solved," she said, referring to the US Federal Reserve's decision to provide an unprecedented 85-billion-dollar rescue loan for AIG.

Another policyholder said he had sought a loan of one million Taiwan dollars (US$31,200).

"Nan Shan is a good company ... but for now, I got a loan from the company so as to minimise my possible investment risk," said Tseng Tse-tien, a man in his 60s.

Nan Shan spokesperson April Pan told AFP that "our business is back to normal. Indeed some clients had approached us, but a great majority of them were happy with our assurance" that their interests would not be damaged.

Taiwan's financial regulator, the Financial Supervisory Commission, has said Nan Shan was financially healthy.