Shareholders' equity Shareholders' Equity (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

Shareholders' equity [Abstract]

Dividends Declared [Table Text Block]

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

	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	September 30						September 30
	2015			2014			2015			2014
	CHF	USD		CHF	USD		CHF	USD		CHF	USD
Dividends – par value reduction	—	$		0.61	$	0.65	0.62	$	0.65	1.64	$	1.81
Dividends – distributed from capital contribution reserves	0.65	0.67		—	—		1.27	1.34		0.20	0.24
Total dividend distributions per common share	0.65	$	0.67	0.61	$	0.65	1.89	$	1.99	1.84	$	2.05

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:

(in millions of U.S. dollars, except share data)	Three Months Ended September 30				Nine Months Ended September 30
	2015		2014		2015		2014
Number of shares repurchased	—		4,349,302		6,677,663		10,143,184
Cost of shares repurchased	$	—	$	450	$	734	$	1,019
Repurchase authorization remaining at end of period	$	766	$	924	$	766	$	924