AXA insurance

       AXA is a French multinational insurance firm headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris that engages in global insurance, investment management, and other financial services. The AXA Group operates primarily in Western Europe, North America, the Asia Pacific region, and the Middle East, with presence also in Africa. AXA is a conglomerate of independently run businesses, operated according to the laws and regulations of many different countries. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.

The company was originally founded in 1816 as Mutuelle de L'assurance contre L'incendie.It acquired Compagnie Parisienne de Garantie in 1978 and became Mutuelles Unies.It went on to buy the Drouot Group in 1982, becoming Mutuelles Unies/Drouot. It adopted the AXA name in 1985.The takeover of the American insurance company The Equitable, came in 1991.It bought Union des Assurances De Paris (UAP), France's largest insurer, in 1996 becoming AXA-UAP for a while before reverting to the name AXA in 1999.Then in February 1999 AXA acquired Guardian Royal Exchange.In May 2000 AXA acquired all shares it did not already own in Sun Life & Provincial Holdings.On 14 June 2006 AXA acquired the leading Swiss insurance company Winterthur Group from Credit Suisse for approximately €9 billion.

AXA trades in the United Kingdom as AXA UK using a number of subsidiaries such as AXA Sun Life, AXA Insurance, AXA Investment Managers, AXA Wealth and AXA PPP Healthcare. AXA PPP Healthcare was created when AXA bought Guardian Royal Exchange (GRE), though it subsequently sold the other parts of GRE to Aegon. The company also owns the online insurer Swiftcover, distribution business Bluefin and fund manager Architas. In January 2007 AXA was reorganised into "strategic business units" (SBU's) aimed at competing within their specific markets.

AXA Canada offers insurance services through a network of affiliates operating in the different Canadian regions such as Quebec, Ontario, Western Canada and Atlantic Canada. In 2009, the company had a total of approximately 2,300 employees and 4000 brokers and advisors. The head office is in Montreal, Quebec. In 2011, AXA's Canadian operations were acquired by Intact Financial Corp. for C$2.6 billion.

The American arm of AXA is AXA Financial, inc., which is known mainly through its subsidiaries such as AXA Advisors, LLC, AXA Equitable Life Insurance, AXA Network, MONY (former Mutual of New York), US Financial Life, and AllianceBernstein.The Equitable was acquired in 1991; MONY was acquired in 2004.

AXA headquarters is located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.AXA, which already owned 23 Avenue Matignon, acquired the former Hotel de La Vaupalière, an 18th-century building, in the late 1990s. Architect Ricardo Bofill integrated the facade of the hotel with a modern glass building that covers the courtyard that the hotel also occupies. The complex serves as AXA's head office.