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United Kingdom · Qualifications

The CISI Capital Markets Programme

You pass two units: a regulatory unit, such as UK Financial Regulation, and a technical unit in Securities or Derivatives. The CISI Capital Markets Programme, from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), is its entry-level qualification for the wholesale and capital markets sector. Ofqual regulates it as the Level 3 Certificate in Securities or the Level 3 Certificate in Derivatives, depending on your technical unit.

  • 100Questions in each technical unit exam
  • 70 of 100Pass mark in CISI’s Securities sample paper
  • 183 hoursTotal qualification time per certificate
Where to study

Updated October 2026 · Written from official sources, listed at the bottom of this page

Securities or Derivatives: the technical units

Both technical units are two-hour exams of 100 multiple-choice questions. Both are on syllabus Version 25, and the workbooks page shows when Version 26 starts.

  • Securities gives the most questions to asset classes (27), secondary markets (15), primary markets (14) and accounting analysis (14).
  • Derivatives gives the most questions to the introduction to derivatives (17), underlying markets (16), clearing and margin (14), and trading, hedging and investment strategies (14).

CISI’s Version 25 Securities sample paper scores 70 to 100 as a pass and 0 to 69 as a fail.

CISI withdrew three of its four Level 3 derivatives exams on 31 December 2020 and kept one, called Derivatives.

Syllabus version changeover dates →

Do you need IntegrityMatters for the CISI Capital Markets Programme?

Yes, if you sit it in the UK, Ireland, Europe or North America. You must pass IntegrityMatters, CISI’s online integrity test, before your first Capital Markets Programme exam, and CISI’s system won’t let you into the exam until it shows a pass. You can’t take the test on the day of the exam.

If you haven’t passed it 24 hours before your exam time, CISI cancels the booking, and rebooking costs £80.

What IntegrityMatters involves →

Capital Markets Programme fees

ItemFee
Exam fee, Securities£286
Exam fee, Derivatives£286
CISI workbook, each unit£105
Securities or Derivatives exam, workbook and Revision Express together£406

The regulatory unit’s fee is on its own page, and CISI’s total for the programme is on the cost page.

UK Financial Regulation →Total CISI qualification costs →

After the Capital Markets Programme

A pass opens up CISI’s Associate grade (ACSI). CISI’s next steps from the programme are the Certificate in Corporate Finance, the Level 4 Certificate in Investment Management, the Diploma in Capital Markets and the Diploma in Corporate Finance.

The Certificate in Corporate Finance →The Certificate in Investment Management →CISI membership grades →
Sources: CISI · Ofqual and 4 more. Checked October 2026.

Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.

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OverviewCoursesBookingCostRevision ExpressAll qualificationsIADIOCMembership

Level 3 exams

UK Financial RegulationSecurities and InvestmentCapital MarketsCorporate FinanceRisk

Level 4 and above

Investment ManagementInvestment ComplianceChartered Wealth Manager

Professional standing

CPDSPSIntegrityMatters

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