The Australian Mutual Provident Society was formed in 1849 as a non-profit, life-insurance company, and mutual society, with its first office located in Sydney.
George King was chairman for fifteen years from the 1850s. Richard Teece was general manager and actuary from 1890 and a director from 1917 to 1927.
As the company grew, offices were opened across Australia including in Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and Darwin as well as regional centres such as Newcastle, Goulburn, Bendigo, Warrnambool, Maryborough, Townsville and Rockhampton.
In 1876, the company expanded to New Zealand and opened its first office in Wellington. An Auckland office was opened in 1960.
In 1998, AMP was demutualised into an Australian public company, AMP Limited, and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and New Zealand Stock Exchange.
In 1999, AMP launched AMP Banking, an online bank.
In 2003, the company demerged its UK operations, creating the Henderson Group.
On 15 November 2010, AMP announced a bid to merge its business with AXA Asia Pacific Holdings, with AXA acquiring AXA Asia Pacific Holdings' Asian business and AMP acquiring AXA's Australian and New Zealand business. The Australasian holdings included the former National Mutual business (established in 1869) which was demutualised in 1996. As part of this merger, the AXA brand was phased out of the Australian and New Zealand market by 2013.
In 2020, AMP completed the sale of its life insurance business AMP Life to Resolution Life.
In February 2022, AMP delisted from the NZX, consolidating its listing on the Australian Securities Exchange.
An additional arm of the AMP business is the global investment management company AMP Capital. AMP Capital manages real estate and infrastructure assets including shopping centres, airports and trains on behalf of funds and clients, while in public markets, it manages investments in equities, fixed income, multi-asset and diversified capabilities on behalf of clients around the world.