Many of the 20,000 investors who put money into Irish Life's Scope equity funds have suffered substantial losses, with those who invested in the telecommunications and Nasdaq 100 funds suffering most.

Irish Life launched its Scope funds in 1999 at the height of the boom in stock markets and the products were designed to allow clients to invest in various stocks. Equity markets have have declined sharply over the last three years

According to the company, about 15 per cent of its customers opted for the highest-risk funds, with their monies being invested in telecommunications stocks and in companies listed on Nasdaq.

To date the telecommunication fund has recorded a loss of 43.3 per cent while the Nasdaq fund, which was primarily invested in high-tech companies, is down 64.5 per cent.

Its global equity fund has lost 52 per cent, the Celtic fund, which is invested in Irish stocks, is off 31 per cent while its Wisdom or consensus fund is down 20 per cent.

Its Secure fund, which offers investors a guaranteed minimum return after five years, has lost 4 per cent in value, while its cash fund has shown 5.5 per cent growth.

Investors have the option to switch their funds from the riskier investments into safer havens such as cash, with the company reporting some 3,000 of these type of transactions from its customers a year.