Shareholders' equity (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Share Repurchase Program [Table Text Block]

The following table presents repurchases of ACE's Common Shares conducted in a series of open market transactions under the Board authorizations:

	Years Ended December 31						January 1, 2015 through
(in millions of U.S. dollars, except share data)	2014		2013		2012		February 26, 2015
Number of shares repurchased	13,982,358		3,266,531		100,000		1,877,463
Dollar value of shares repurchased	$	1,449	$	290	$	7	$	211

Dividends Declared [Table Text Block]

The following table presents dividend distributions per Common Share in Swiss francs (CHF) and U.S. dollars (USD):

	Years Ended December 31
		2014			2013			2012
	CHF	USD		CHF	USD		CHF	USD
Dividends - par value reduction	2.27	$	2.46	1.85	$	2.02	1.38	$	1.47
Dividends - distributed from capital contribution reserves	0.20	0.24		—	—		0.53	0.59
Total dividend distributions per common share	2.47	$	2.70	1.85	$	2.02	1.91	$	2.06

Schedule of changes in Common Shares issued and outstanding

	Years Ended December 31
	2014		2013		2012
Shares issued, beginning and end of year	342,832,412		342,832,412		342,832,412
Common Shares in treasury, end of year (at cost)	(14,172,726	)	(3,038,477	)	(2,510,878	)
Shares issued and outstanding, end of year	328,659,686		339,793,935		340,321,534
Common Shares issued to employee trust
Balance, beginning and end of year	(9,467	)	(9,467	)	(9,467	)