Thousands of customers passed on from building societies and banks to Axa Wealth were not warned of the risk of investing in Isa funds and investment bonds and are in line for full compensation from any losses.

AXA Wealth, part of the global AXA Group, has been fined £1.8m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failing to give suitable investment advice to customers passed on to it from banks and building societies.The regulator said 26,000 customers were wrongly advised in a range of investment products while Axa staff pocketed lucrative bonuses for making the sales. According to the FCA, customers were put into stocks and shares Isas, open-ended investment companies (Oeics) and investment bonds without AXA assessing their attitude to risk and losses. The customers were mainly nearing retirement and largely not experienced investors. But AXA failed to confirm how much risk its customers were prepared to take or explain the dangers in clear terms. The FCA said AXA sold around 37,000 products to 26,000 customers between 15 September 2010 and 30 April 2012 in branches of Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank and the West Bromwich Building Society......Read more here