Axa Asia-Pacific expects the rapid sales growth of its protected investment guarantee product North to continue when financial markets recover.

The group's expectation is based on the experience with similar products in the United States.

Industry data shows that in the recovery period after the dotcom crash, the demand for capital guaranteed investment products increased rapidly.

"People's attitudes to risk change once you've lived with the consequences of risk," Axa general manager sales and marketing Adrian Emery said at the Axa North expo in Sydney yesterday.

"What you will see is that even when markets recover people don't forget what happened previously and never want to go through it again," he said.

Axa launched North in November 2007 and interest in the product has been rising as the economic downturn has deepened.

Over 2008 North sales totaled $295 million, of which $93 million came in during the December quarter of 2008. In January 2009 North saw sales of $50 million.

Emery believes a recovery in financial markets will not diminish the demand for capital guaranteed products.

"We believe this is an evergreen product," he said.

The North product offers investors exposure to equity markets while guaranteeing a return of 100 per cent of their initial investment for five or seven years. It achieves this through a complex hedging strategy.

In return, investors have to pay a fee of around 1 per cent depending on the length of the guarantee and the amount invested.