Shareholders' equity Shareholders' Equity (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2017

Stockholders' Equity Note [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
	2017			2016			2017			2016
	CHF	USD		CHF	USD		CHF	USD		CHF	USD
Total dividend distributions per common share	0.68	$	0.71	0.67	$	0.69	2.06	$	2.11	2.01	$	2.05

Share Repurchase Program [Table Text Block]

Repurchases of Chubb's Common Shares conducted in a series of open market transactions from January 1, 2017 through October 31, 2017 under the Board authorization are as follows:

(in millions of U.S. dollars, except share data)	Three Months Ended September 30, 2017		Nine Months Ended September 30, 2017		October 1, 2017 through October 31, 2017
Number of shares repurchased	1,615,383		5,033,013		25,000
Cost of shares repurchased	$	232	$	707	$	4
Repurchase authorization remaining at end of period	$	293	$	293	$	289