Shareholders' equity Shareholders' Equity (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2014

Shareholders' equity [Abstract]

Dividends Declared [Table Text Block]

The following table presents the dividends per Common Share for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014, in Swiss francs (CHF) and U.S. dollars (USD).

	Three Months Ended								Nine Months Ended
	September 30								September 30
	2014				2013				2014				2013
Dividends – par value reduction	CHF	0.61	$	0.65	CHF	0.46	$	0.51	CHF	1.64	$	1.81	CHF	1.40	$	1.51
Dividends – distributed from capital contribution reserves	—		—		—		—		0.20		0.24		—		—
Total dividends per common share	CHF	0.61	$	0.65	CHF	0.46	$	0.51	CHF	1.84	$	2.05	CHF	1.40	$	1.51

Share Repurchase Program [Table Text Block]

The following table presents 2014 share repurchases of ACE's Common Shares conducted in a series of open market transactions under the November 2013 Board authorization of a share repurchase program of up to $2.0 billion through December 31, 2014:

(in millions of U.S. dollars, except share data)	Three Months Ended	Nine Months Ended	October 1, 2014 through October 28, 2014
	September 30, 2014	September 30, 2014
Number of shares repurchased	4,349,302	10,143,184	699,965
Dollar value of shares repurchased	$450	$1,019	$74
Repurchase authorization remaining at end of period	$924	$924	$850