Axa Asia Pacific is counting on diversified products and a wide geographic spread to counter an ongoing slump in investor confidence.

CEO Andy Penn said last week that despite equity market improvement, “investor confidence has not yet recovered and industry sales in most of the markets in which we operate remain well below 2008”.

Axa’s total funds under management, administration and advice fell 2% to $81.9 billion during the first nine months of the year.

“In this environment, our product and geographic distribution has continued to provide resilience to our business,” he said.

Axa’s financial protection portfolio reported mixed results across the region, although trading was generally positive in Australia and NZ.

Despite some general media reports to the contrary, Axa increased Australian financial protection new business by 8% to $90.8 million during the period.

Individual life new business increased 14% to $51.3 million while income protection sales rose 22% to $23.6 million. Those results were partly offset by an 18% fall in group risk new business of $15.9 million.

Financial protection new business in NZ was stable at $NZ20.1 million ($16.3 million) as lower group life sales negated growth in individual lines.