According to Article 1(12) of the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/35, 'earned premiums' means the premiums relating to the risk covered by the insurance or reinsurance undertaking during a specified time period.

The operational risk module shall be calculated in accordance with Article 204 of that Delegated Regulation. For that purpose paragraph 3 of that Article specifies different amounts of earned premiums that enter the calculation. For example, in Article 204(3)(a) DR, Earnlife denotes the premiums earned during the last 12 months for life insurance and reinsurance obligations, without deducting premiums for reinsurance contracts. In that case, the premiums used should be the premiums that relate to the life insurance and reinsurance risks covered during the last 12 months.

The run-off pattern of claims reserves is not an appropriate pattern for determining earned premiums, at least not in general, because there is often a time gap between risk coverage and claims payment.