Zurich Insurance : chairman calls high dividend "duty to shareholders"

Zurich Insurance can maintain its dividend despite the hit from the coronavirus pandemic, Chairman Michel Lies was quoted as saying by the Finanz und Wirtschaft newspaper in an interview posted on its website of Tuesday.

"The board of directors had proposed a dividend for 2019 of 20 Swiss francs, a level that we can sustainably pay. The high dividend is an obligation to our shareholders. We have no intention of changing anything in the short term. With property and life insurance and service fees, our business model is extremely stable," he said, adding the group's financial targets through 2022 were not in doubt.

(Reporting by Michael Shields, editing by John Revill)