The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined private bank Coutts & Co £6.3 million for exposing customers to 'unacceptable risk' in connection with the sale of a fund from American insurance firm AIG.

The fine relates to 'a number of serious failings in the way the fund was sold' between 3 December 2003 and 15 September 2008, according to an FSA statement. 

These included mis-selling the fund as an alternative to a bank or building society, exposing investors to more capital risk than they appeared willing to accept and failing to deal with questions raised by investors about the sale of the fund.

Coutts, who is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, sold the fund to 427 high-net-worth investors, with investments totalling £1.45 billion.

As Lehman Brothers crashed in 2008, AIG's share price dropped dramatically leading to a run on the fund, as a number of investors sought to withdraw their investments. Coutts suspended the fund, preventing customers from immediately withdrawing all their investment.

The FSA also cited Coutts' failure to undertake an effective compliance review of its sale of the fund after it was suspended and customers complained.

Tracey McDermott, acting director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA, said, 'Firms giving investment advice must ensure they make suitable recommendations. It is imperative that firms also ensure that clients understand the nature of the product they are buying and the risks it involves. 

'We will continue to take action where we find evidence that firms are giving unsuitable advice to customers.

'It is also disappointing that Coutts failed to reflect properly upon the impact of changing market conditions and what that meant for the advice it had given, and was giving, to its customers,' he added.

Coutts has agreed to undertake a review of its past business performance, overseen by an independent third party, and will compensate all investors who have suffered losses.

The firm has also agreed to settle at an early stage, entitling it to a 30 per cent discount on its original fine of £9 million.