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The company said it had fixed the adverts when it realised that they were misleading and pointed out that it had never before been censured or fined by the FSA.

"Axa Sun Life regrets the use of incorrect building society data in a chart showing a performance comparison of BCB with a building society account," it said.

The company said it had also written to all policyholders who started a policy during the period when the incorrect data was used in the advertising, and have provided the correct information together with a summary of the key product features.

Axa also apologised to the FSA for the delay in notifying them of this incident.

Paul Evans, the chief executive of Axa Sun Life, said, "We voluntarily appointed an independent third party, Ernst & Young, to review systems and controls relating to our financial promotions and have acted on all the recommendations in their report. We have also reviewed and improved our ASLD promotional material.

"Axa Sun Life is pleased that the regulator has placed on record that we have been 'open and co-operative' throughout their investigation and that Axa 'should receive considerable credit' for the restorative action we have taken."

Bonnier and Regus "materially inaccurate"

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said Mr Bonnier and Indigo were guilty of market abuse for issuing "materially inaccurate" statements about dealings in Regus shares between November 2002 and January last year.

The FSA began investigating the dealings after the Takeover Panel rebuked Indigo and its managing director Mr Bonnier for breaking City rules regarding a possible takeover of Regus.

The FSA said the 12 statements appeared to show Indigo had shareholdings in Regus when it held only so-called contracts for difference (CFDs) - a derivative product giving an investor exposure to a share price without actually owning any shares.

Regus subsequently announced the notifications to the market.

FSA enforcement director Andrew Procter said Mr Bonnier, in providing inaccurate information, had created a false and misleading impression of the supply and demand or price and value of Regus shares.

Mr Procter described Mr Bonnier as an experienced market practitioner and said his repeated actions and Indigo’s failure adequately to oversee his activities fell "far short" of the standards the FSA expects.

"Investors need to have confidence in the integrity of the processes by which shares are traded on the market and that information disclosed to the market is accurate," he said.

A statement issued by Mr Bonnier’s lawyers said he had agreed to accept the FSA’s findings and £290,000 penalty.

It added, however, that the FSA had made no finding about whether Mr Bonnier had meant to mislead the market.

"Mr Bonnier wishes to reiterate that at no time did he intend to mislead the market and regrets that technically incorrect notifications were made. At all times, he believed he was obliged to notify Regus of interests held in CFDs as well as shares," the statement said.

Mr Bonnier made his name with internet and telephone information service Scoot.com, but resigned as the chairman of the group in June 2001 after it hit difficulties following the collapse of the dot-com boom.

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