Swiss insurer Zurich has reported first-quarter net income of $US1.27 billion ($1.36 billion), up 20% compared with the corresponding period last year.

The combined operating ratio improved from 94.9% to 93.9% as the general insurance business mainly benefitted from a “relatively benign catastrophe environment”.

Total gross written premium (GWP) for the period was down slightly to $US14.74 billion ($15.74 billion), with general insurance GWP also down marginally to $US10.63 billion ($11.35 billion).

General insurance GWP from the Australian business dropped 18% to $US191 million ($204 million).

Total revenues were down almost 20% to $US16.87 billion ($18.01 billion).

CFO George Quinn says the results represent a solid start to the year.

“We see some early positive signs in the execution of our strategic targets for 2014 to 2016 but there is still much to do,” he said.

“As announced in March, we are implementing a program to streamline the company, removing management layers between group and the business units and empowering our people to act decisively in delivering first-class services to our customers.”