Warranty Holdings Group, the troubled warranty provider, has appointed AXA to underwrite its business from January.

The move comes after NIG, the UK's largest insurer of vehicle warranties, announced it would not be renewing Warranty Holdings' under-writing agreement when it came up for renewal.

Approximately 26% of Warranty Holdings' business is accounted for by its other products operations, which include gap finance, vehicle replacement insurance, MoT insurance and tyre insurance.

Warranty Holdings, which was acquired by Ford in May 2001, turned over £84m in 2002. It expected this to increase by 10% last year.

Last month it announced the departure of group managing director David Shapiro after an internal investigation revealed “certain irregularities”.