NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Goldman Sachs Group rejected overtures from American International Group to settle trades with the troubled insurer at a discount, instead holding the company to the letter of its contracts, the investment bank's chief financial officer said Friday.

CFO David Viniar also said that Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein had no meetings with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson about AIG.

Goldman GS, +1.57% and other large firms that were counterparties to AIG AIG, +1.31% have come under criticism in recent weeks because a lot of the government money that was initially loaned to the insurer was paid back out to these trading partners. See full story.

AIG almost collapsed in September after credit rating downgrades made it impossible for the insurer to meet obligations on derivative-based contracts it had sold to protect against losses on complex mortgage-related securities known as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs.

The government gave AIG an emergency $85 billion loan and the bailout has since ballooned to more than $170 billion.

Goldman was one of AIG's largest counterparties partly because it had purchased protection against losses on CDOs from the insurer.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters Friday, Viniar said that Goldman began to significantly mark down its Super Senior CDO risk in July 2007, resulting in valuation disputes with AIG.

The investment bank demanded that the insurer post more and more collateral over the following year. "Over subsequent weeks and months, we continued to make calls as the market deteriorated," he added.

Viniar was asked if Goldman Sachs felt any guilt about its possible contribution to AIG's collapse.

"All we did was call for what was due to us under the contracts. So you know, I don't think there's any guilt whatsoever," he said.

“ 'We don't think we did anything wrong. We had commercial terms. It is our responsibility to our shareholders to make sure that we are protecting ourselves. That's why we enter into these contracts.' ” — Goldman Sachs CFO David Viniar

"We don't think we did anything wrong," Viniar continued, explaining that "we had commercial terms. It is our responsibility to our shareholders to make sure that we are protecting ourselves. That's why we enter into these contracts. That's why we have terms in the first place, to make sure that we are protected."

As part of that protection, Goldman also apparently made trades that allowed it to profit from deterioration in AIG's financial strength -- likely based on those collateral calls.

Viniar acknowledged Friday that Goldman profited from AIG's woes. When asked if the firm made gains over the course of AIG's deterioration, he said: "Net-net, I would think we had a gain over the time. I don't think it was particularly material to Goldman Sachs. But net-net, I think we had a gain. I think that gain probably somewhat more than offset the bid-offer spread that we had to pay to put the CDS hedges on."

No Paulson meetings

Goldman's involvement with AIG has been scrutinized more than other firms, partly because Paulson ran the investment bank before he became Treasury Secretary.

The New York Times and other news organizations have reported that Blankfein, Goldman's current CEO, met with regulators including Paulson in early September to discuss troubles at Lehman Brothers LEHMQ and AIG.

Bloomberg News reported that Blankfein was the only chief executive at a meeting Sept. 15 at the New York Federal Reserve Bank at which the troubles at AIG were discussed, although representatives of other firms were present. Bloomberg cited an unidentified Federal Reserve spokesman.

However, on Friday, Viniar said Blankfein and Paulson never met to discuss AIG.

"As far as I know, there were no meetings with Lloyd and Hank Paulson," Viniar said, according to a transcript of the conference call. "I think Lloyd has said that. So that's what I would say."

Later on in the conference call, Viniar was asked whether Goldman contributed anything to how AIG was rescued or restructured.

Viniar said, "no."

No significant economic exposure

Viniar also stressed that Goldman was and remains protected. He added that the firm would not have lost money from specific derivatives contracts with AIG had the insurer failed, rather than being rescued by the government.

"We have stated consistently that Goldman Sachs did not have a significant economic exposure to AIG. AIG's disclosure of cash flows to counterparties does not in any way contradict that statement," Viniar told reporters.

"We had commercial contracts with AIG. We entered into these contracts on commercial terms. We were fully hedged with either credit default swaps or collateral, so we were not in a position to take a loss," Viniar said.

He noted that Goldman continues to hold a bit more than $4 billion in collateral, supporting a roughly $6 billion open trading position with AIG.