CISI Global Financial Compliance Course

 

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The CISI Global Financial Compliance exam is 100 multiple-choice questions in two hours, and the marks sit almost flat across five elements: 24, 20, 20, 19 and 17. The Compliance Function is the largest at nearly a quarter of the paper, but nothing here is small enough to skip. Drop one element and your ceiling is 83 marks before you answer a question, against a pass mark of 70. This course covers all five and shows you where the paper tests judgement rather than recall.

Study alongside the current CISI workbook using recorded lectures, chapter notes and practice questions. Test each element as you finish it and go back to weak objectives before you book.

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The CISI examination is booked and paid for separately, directly with CISI. The price on this page covers the Tadawul Academy preparation course only. Current CISI examination and workbook fees are listed below.

Who this Global Financial Compliance course is for

The qualification takes an international view of compliance rather than one country’s rulebook. It suits people who need to understand how a regulated firm builds, operates and tests its compliance framework:

• Compliance officers, compliance analysts and staff moving into a compliance function
• AML, financial crime, sanctions, KYC and transaction-monitoring teams
• Risk, governance, internal audit and control professionals
• Operations, legal and business staff whose work touches regulated activities
• Managers who receive compliance reports or carry responsibility for regulatory breaches
• Candidates taking Global Financial Compliance as a technical unit within the Investment Operations Certificate

There are no formal entry requirements. CISI advises English proficiency at CEFR B2 level. The paper rewards close reading: several answers can sound plausible, and only one correctly allocates the responsibility, applies the control or reflects international best practice.

What passing the exam awards you

Read this before you book — it is the point most candidates get wrong. Passing this examination awards the CISI Level 3 Award in Global Financial Compliance, regulated by Ofqual at Level 3 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework, Level 4 on the European Qualifications Framework, with a total qualification time of 102 hours. CISI’s qualification page states that the Award gives access to membership at Affiliate level.

The Award is not the full Certificate. The CISI Level 3 Certificate in Global Financial Compliance also requires an eligible CISI regulatory examination or an accepted exemption. It carries a total qualification time of 183 hours, and CISI states that the Certificate qualification gives access to Associate membership and the ACSI letters. Several provider pages describe the single exam as delivering ACSI, so if membership grade is why you are sitting, confirm your position with CISI first. Global Financial Compliance also counts as an Investment Operations Certificate technical unit. You hold free CISI Student membership while you study.

What the CISI Global Financial Compliance exam covers

The current specification is syllabus version 11, effective from 1 October 2024. The question allocation shows where the paper puts its weight:

Element	Questions	What to prepare for
1. The International Regulatory Environment	20	Regulatory models, rules-based against principles-based approaches, home- and host-state supervision, cross-border business, data protection and tax reporting, market integrity legislation, fintech and digital assets, and the international bodies: BIS, FSB and IOSCO.
2. The Compliance Function	24	Compliance structures and manuals, monitoring programmes, reporting to senior management, the three lines model, training, new-business due diligence, breaches, inspections and regulator relationships.
3. Managing the Risk of Financial Crime	20	The laundering stages, terrorist financing, FATF, predicate offences, Ponzi schemes and boiler rooms, beneficial ownership, sanctions screening, PEPs, cybercrime, the MLRO’s role and suspicious transaction reporting.
4. Ethics, Integrity and Fairness	19	Ethical culture, market abuse and price-sensitive information, information barriers, personal account dealing, conflicts, whistleblowing, client outcomes from product design to complaints, vulnerable clients and ESG.
5. Governance, Risk Management and Compliance	17	Board accountability, unitary and two-tier structures, audit, due diligence and fitness and propriety, the risk management process, operational resilience, and the BIS definition of compliance risk and who owns it.

The number tested in any element can move by up to two questions, but the shape holds. Do not give every chapter the same revision time, and do not write any element off either: candidates who fail this paper usually fail on one element they decided was minor.

This is not a calculation-heavy paper. Its difficulty comes from distinctions and application. You need to separate the responsibilities of the board, senior management, compliance, internal audit and the MLRO; tell a legal requirement from good practice; and decide the correct response to a short workplace scenario — a regulator arriving with a warrant naming three officers when a fourth wants in, an existing client appearing on a sanctions list, a minor breach that needs no remedial action. Memorising definitions is necessary and not sufficient.

Use the official CISI qualification page and the current version 11 syllabus as your reference. Check the Candidate Update area before you book: CISI lists the action period for version 11 as 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2026, and has published workbook amendments under it, including a new section on whistleblowing, revised content on fair treatment outcomes and corrections to several workbook question answers.

What is included

• Recorded video lectures covering all five syllabus elements, chapter by chapter
• Chapter summary slides and study notes for revision
• Multiple-choice practice questions designed around the CISI examination format, organised by chapter
• An Ask the Trainer section for questions about the material
• Access options of two weeks, one month or three months
• Three months’ access to the Tadawul Academy job board — current compliance, AML, financial crime and regulatory vacancies in the UK, the Gulf, Egypt and India

The practice questions are written by Tadawul Academy for preparation. They are not official CISI examination questions, and training providers do not have access to the live question bank. Their purpose is to make you retrieve and apply the material rather than recognise it while reading the workbook.

Global Financial Compliance exam format

Questions	100 multiple choice
Duration	2 hours
Pass mark	70% — 70 correct answers out of 100 scored questions
Total qualification time	102 hours for the standalone Level 3 Award; 183 hours for the full Certificate
Delivery	Computer-based examination, available on demand
Where	CISI global test centres, or online through remote invigilation, subject to local availability
Trial questions	Up to 10% additional unscored questions can appear. They are not identified, and proportionate extra time is given.
Results	Available in MyCISI within 24 working hours, provisional for five working days
Resits	Up to six attempts at the same subject in any rolling 12-month period. A six-week rest period applies after the third sitting in that period.
Languages	English and Arabic

The resit limit runs on a rolling 12 months from each sitting, not a calendar year. An employer can ask CISI to waive the six-week rest period once, for a fourth attempt; if that attempt fails, the rest period applies and no further waiver is granted.

What the CISI Global Financial Compliance exam costs

These are CISI’s charges, separate from the price of this course. Figures cover 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 and were checked on 5 August 2026. What you pay depends on where you book.

Booking in the UK

• Examination: £283
• Workbook, mandatory with the booking: £105
• Examination, workbook and Revision Express together: £403

Booking internationally

• First sitting: £403, including the workbook and Revision Express where available
• Resit within the same syllabus version: £283
• Some countries add a local invigilation fee

Other CISI fees

• Qualification Registration Fee: £68, paid once on your first CISI qualification
• Revision Express purchased separately: £45
• MCQ Performance Review: £40, free after failing the same subject three times
• Going on to the full Certificate: CISI publishes the two-unit route as £513 in exam fees and £205 in workbook fees

A Performance Review breaks a failed result down by syllabus element. That matters on this paper because the five elements sit within seven marks of each other: it tells you whether the problem was the 24-question Compliance Function, the financial-crime element or several smaller gaps, instead of leaving you to revise all five. Confirm every figure on the current CISI price list before booking.

How to plan your Global Financial Compliance study

CISI puts study time for this unit at 100 hours and total qualification time for the Award at 102 hours. Two planning examples:

• Thirteen weeks at around eight hours a week
• Seventeen weeks at around six hours a week

These are our suggestions, not CISI rules. Compliance experience shortens the time you need on familiar controls, but it also creates false confidence where the syllabus uses an international model rather than your firm’s local process. Because the weighting is flat, sequence the material by dependency:

1. Start with Elements 1 and 2. They carry 44 questions between them and establish how regulation and the compliance function fit together.
2. Add Element 3. Map each financial-crime risk to the responsible person, the required escalation and the preventive control.
3. Study Element 4 through decisions. Practise conflicts, use of information, client outcomes and conduct that can be legal and still unethical.
4. Finish with Element 5. Connect governance, accountability, audit and risk assessment back to the controls in the earlier elements.

Answer chapter questions as you go rather than saving them for the end. Once you have covered the syllabus, sit CISI’s official version 11 sample paper under timed conditions. Its answer sheet maps every question to the syllabus objective behind it, so review each wrong or guessed answer and go back to that objective rather than the whole chapter. Book once you are clearing 80% on mixed practice sets.

Using this course with the CISI workbook

The current CISI workbook is the definitive examination text. Tadawul Academy adds guided explanation, condensed revision material, practice questions and trainer support so you can work through it systematically.

1. Watch the recorded lecture for the chapter.
2. Read the matching workbook section, noting the exact roles, controls and reporting lines.
3. Review the chapter summary slides and notes.
4. Answer that chapter’s practice questions without looking back at the material.
5. Revisit every incorrect or guessed answer and record why the other options were wrong.

At Level 3 the examination applies a principle to a situation the workbook does not describe word for word, and one question can draw on more than one section. A scenario about a new product can combine due diligence, conflicts, senior-management responsibility and regulatory notification at once. Practice questions train that connection; repeated reading does not.

Before you enrol

• We do not run classroom training or live online sessions. This is a self-paced e-learning package of recorded video lectures, study notes and practice questions.
• You can create a free account on our e-learning portal and try two chapters before buying.
• After you order, we activate your account and email confirmation within a few hours. Check that your email address is correct at checkout.
• When your access expires, place a new order on this page to extend it.
• You need the current CISI Global Financial Compliance workbook. We are not permitted to supply it — CISI does, with your exam booking, under its mandatory workbook policy. UK candidates buy it with the exam; candidates sitting outside the UK receive it in PDF, included in the international price. Study it properly before you sit.

Book the Global Financial Compliance examination with CISI

Frequently asked questions

Do I need the CISI workbook as well as this course?

Yes. The workbook is the examination text and CISI requires it with your exam booking. This course adds recorded explanations, revision notes, practice questions and Ask the Trainer support.

How much does the CISI Global Financial Compliance exam cost?

Booking in the UK, £283 for the exam plus £105 for the mandatory workbook, or £403 for both with Revision Express. Booking internationally, £403 for a first sitting with the workbook included, and £283 for a resit within the same syllabus version. Add the one-off £68 registration fee if this is your first CISI qualification, and check whether a local invigilation fee applies in your country. Figures from the CISI price list for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.

Do I receive the Level 3 Award or the full Certificate?

Passing this exam gives the Level 3 Award in Global Financial Compliance. The full Certificate also requires an eligible CISI regulatory examination or an accepted exemption. CISI’s published totals for that two-unit route are £513 in exam fees and £205 in workbook fees.

Are there mock exams and practice questions?

The course includes multiple-choice practice questions designed around the CISI examination format, organised by chapter so you can test each element as you finish it, plus mixed sets once you have covered the syllabus. They are our own — no provider has CISI’s live exam questions.

Does CISI publish a sample paper or past papers?

CISI publishes an official version 11 sample paper of 100 questions with an answer key that cites the syllabus objective behind each one. Live questions stay confidential and are not released as past papers, so a PDF of “real” exam questions circulating online is not an official document.

How long does preparation take?

CISI puts study time for this unit at 100 hours and total qualification time for the Award at 102. Thirteen weeks at eight hours a week, or seventeen at six, both reach that. Practitioners usually move faster through Element 3 and slower through Element 5, which sits furthest from daily practice.

Does this course include live classes?

No. Everything is recorded and self-paced. For questions on the material, use the Ask the Trainer section and you get a written answer.

How quickly is my account activated?

Within a few hours of your order, and we email you to confirm. The most common cause of delay is a mistyped email address at checkout.

Is the job board really included?

Yes, at no extra cost, for three months from activation. It lists current compliance, AML, financial crime and regulatory vacancies across the UK, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and India, with CISI qualifications named in the requirements for many of them.

What happens if I fail, and how many resits am I allowed?

Up to six attempts at the same subject in any rolling 12-month period, with a six-week rest period after the third sitting in that period. A resit within the same syllabus version costs £283 booked internationally. Fail the same subject three times and CISI provides the Performance Review free, showing your score element by element.

Can I sit the exam from home?

Yes. CISI offers this exam by remote invigilation as well as at its global test centres, on demand rather than on fixed dates. Confirm the remote option is available in your country, and run CISI’s system check on the computer you will use, before you book.

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