Zurich Insurance Group made an operating profit of $US4.64 billion ($5.99 billion) last year, down 1% from 2013.

It recorded a net profit of $US3.89 billion ($5.02 billion), down 3%.

CEO Martin Senn says the insurer “cannot be satisfied” with the year’s performance.

“In general insurance, we continue to make good progress… although the results show we have much still to do in our turnaround businesses and in driving further improvement across the book.

“In global life, we see good momentum in our priority life markets.”

General insurance gross written premium (GWP) was $US36.33 billion ($46.88 billion), down by $US106 million ($137 million).

General insurance operating profit grew 1% to $US2.89 billion ($3.73 billion), and the combined operating ratio improved slightly to 97.3% from 98% in 2013.

Zurich’s general insurance GWP and policy fees for Australia totalled $US1.03 billion ($1.33 billion), down from $US1.16 billion ($1.49 billion).

It says most of this decline “is due to the devaluation of the Australian dollar against the US dollar over the past year, with the remainder being due to the difficult market environment, especially in commercial lines, with lower GWP reflecting Zurich’s disciplined underwriting approach in a challenging competitive environment”.