Try 10 focused CISI Intro questions on Introduction, with answers and explanations, then continue with Securities Prep.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam route | CISI Intro |
| Issuer | CISI |
| Topic area | Introduction |
| Blueprint weight | 6% |
| Page purpose | Focused sample questions before returning to mixed practice |
Use this page to isolate Introduction for CISI Intro. Work through the 10 questions first, then review the explanations and return to mixed practice in Securities Prep.
| Pass | What to do | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| First attempt | Answer without checking the explanation first. | The fact, rule, calculation, or judgment point that controlled your answer. |
| Review | Read the explanation even when you were correct. | Why the best answer is stronger than the closest distractor. |
| Repair | Repeat only missed or uncertain items after a short break. | The pattern behind misses, not the answer letter. |
| Transfer | Return to mixed practice once the topic feels stable. | Whether the same skill holds up when the topic is no longer obvious. |
Blueprint context: 6% of the practice outline. A focused topic score can overstate readiness if you recognize the pattern too quickly, so use it as repair work before timed mixed sets.
These questions are original Securities Prep practice items aligned to this topic area. They are designed for self-assessment and are not official exam questions.
Topic: Introduction
A UK retail client uses an ISA platform to buy shares in a FTSE 100 company. The platform passes the order to a specialist firm that enters it into the market and aims to obtain the best available price. Which financial-services entity is most likely performing that role?
Best answer: C
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: The firm described is executing a client order in the market, which is the core broking function. A stockbroker arranges the deal and seeks best execution, whereas custody, fund management, and administration are different roles.
The key clue is that the specialist firm enters the order into the market to buy listed shares and aims to obtain the best available price. That is a broking function. In UK investment services, a stockbroker executes transactions for clients or platforms and is associated with order routing, dealing, and best execution. A custodian mainly safeguards assets after they have been bought, a fund manager decides what a portfolio or fund should hold, and an administrator handles records, pricing, and processing tasks. The deciding point here is trade execution, so the broking entity is the best answer.
A stockbroker executes client buy and sell orders in the market and seeks best execution.
Topic: Introduction
A fund factsheet says it aims to benefit from an ageing population by investing in healthcare providers, medical-device firms, insurers and leisure businesses in different countries. The idea is organised around a long-term change affecting several industries, not around equities, bonds or cash. Which description best matches this approach?
Best answer: B
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: The stem is describing a long-term structural trend, in this case an ageing population, affecting multiple industries and countries. That is a thematic or emerging-theme approach, not a traditional asset-class classification such as equities, bonds or cash.
The core concept is thematic investing. The fund is selecting opportunities created by a broad structural change and then investing across several industries that may benefit from that trend. This is different from traditional asset-class thinking, which classifies investments by what they are, such as shares, bonds, cash or property. It is also different from a sector fund, which would stay mainly within one industry, and from a geographic approach, which would organise investments by region or country. When the stem focuses on sector change or a long-term trend rather than security structure, the best match is an emerging theme or thematic approach. The cross-sector nature of the holdings is the key clue.
It groups investments around a structural trend spanning sectors and countries, rather than by security type.
Topic: Introduction
UK investment firms increasingly use online fact-finds, automated risk questionnaires and model portfolios so smaller retail clients can be served with less face-to-face contact. Which broad market-development theme does this best illustrate?
Best answer: A
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: This situation describes technology reshaping how investment services are delivered to retail clients. Online fact-finds, automated questionnaires and model portfolios point to automation and digital distribution, not to a portfolio principle or a post-trade market function.
The core concept is a broad sector-change theme: firms are using technology to deliver advice or guided investment services more efficiently. Online onboarding, automated risk assessment and model portfolios are typical signs of digitalisation or robo-advice, which can lower cost and widen access for smaller clients.
Diversification is about spreading investments across assets to reduce concentration risk. Custody is the safekeeping and administration of client assets. Clearing is the post-trade process that helps complete transactions between market participants. Those may exist somewhere in the background, but they are not the main pattern described here.
The best answer identifies the change in service delivery model, not a product feature or market infrastructure process.
The key pattern is technology changing how firms deliver investment services, rather than changing the underlying assets or trade mechanics.
Topic: Introduction
Which term describes a service where a customer selects and buys an investment without receiving a personal recommendation from the firm?
Best answer: C
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: An execution-only service simply carries out the customer’s instruction. It does not include a personal recommendation, so the client decides what to buy. Independent and restricted advice both involve advice, and robo-advice uses automation to provide it.
The core distinction is whether the firm gives a personal recommendation. In an execution-only service, the customer chooses the investment and the firm only executes the order. By contrast, independent advice and restricted advice both involve recommending a suitable investment, with the difference being the breadth of products considered. Robo-advice is still advice: the recommendation is generated mainly through online questions and algorithms rather than a traditional adviser meeting. The key takeaway is that execution-only means no personal recommendation at all.
Execution-only means the firm carries out the client’s dealing instruction without making a personal recommendation.
Topic: Introduction
Which statement best distinguishes retail business from professional business in financial services?
Best answer: A
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: Retail business is mainly aimed at personal customers using financial products and services. Professional business mainly serves institutions and market participants, so the key distinction is customer type rather than wealth alone.
The core difference is who the financial-services firm is serving. Retail business focuses on individual consumers and other end users buying products such as savings, insurance, pensions and investments. Professional business focuses mainly on institutional and market-facing customers, such as pension funds, insurers, fund managers and other intermediaries.
At CISI Intro level, think of retail as consumer-facing and professional as institution-facing. A client does not become part of professional business simply because they are wealthy, and interbank or wholesale dealing is not retail activity. The best answer is the one that matches retail with individual consumers and professional business with institutions and intermediaries.
Retail business is consumer-facing, whereas professional business mainly serves institutional and market participants.
Topic: Introduction
A UK firm is meeting a new retail client. The client says she may need access to her money within 12 months and cannot tolerate large losses. The discussion mainly covers her objectives, time horizon and attitude to risk before the firm recommends an investment fund. Which statement best applies the relevant principle?
Best answer: A
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: This scenario is mainly about the service the firm is providing, not the fund itself. When a firm gathers information on objectives, time horizon and attitude to risk before making a recommendation, the core principle is suitability of the advice for that retail client.
The stem describes an advisory process: the firm is assessing the client’s circumstances before recommending an investment. That means the main issue is the firm’s service role and whether its recommendation is suitable for the client’s needs, time horizon and willingness to accept risk. The underlying fund matters, but only after recognising that the firm is giving advice rather than simply presenting a product.
A short time horizon and low tolerance for loss are key client factors. A suitable recommendation should take both into account, rather than relying on broad assumptions about funds in general. Product features such as dealing frequency can be relevant, but they do not replace the firm’s duty to match the recommendation to the client. FSCS protection also does not cover normal market falls.
The key takeaway is to identify the firm’s role first: here, it is advising a retail client.
Because the firm is acting in an advisory capacity, the central principle is suitability to the client’s objectives, time horizon and risk tolerance.
Topic: Introduction
Which description best fits a robo-adviser in the investment market?
Best answer: C
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: A robo-adviser is an investment advice service delivered mainly through technology, often using algorithms and online questionnaires. The platform is digital, but the basic financial purpose is still to provide investment recommendations rather than simply execute trades or operate as a fund.
The core concept is that technology can change how a service is delivered without changing what the service actually is. A robo-adviser is still providing investment advice or recommendations, but it does so through automated, technology-led processes rather than a traditional face-to-face adviser.
This matters because the financial purpose remains the same:
So the defining feature of a robo-adviser is the digital delivery of advice, not a different investment objective or any promise of returns. The closest confusion is an execution-only platform, which is also online but does not recommend investments.
A robo-adviser uses digital processes to deliver investment advice, so the delivery method changes but the service remains advice.
Topic: Introduction
A UK investment platform lets new clients open an account entirely through a mobile app, complete an automated risk questionnaire, and filter funds by carbon emissions and board-diversity policies. Which broad themes affecting financial services are most clearly shown?
Best answer: C
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: The scenario combines digital delivery of investment services with sustainability-related investment selection. App-based onboarding and automated profiling are fintech features, while filtering funds by carbon and governance criteria is an ESG approach.
Fintech is the use of technology to improve or reshape financial services, such as mobile account opening, automated risk profiling, and digital investment platforms. ESG refers to environmental, social, and governance factors being considered in investment selection or product design, such as screening for carbon emissions or governance standards. In this scenario, the mobile app and automated questionnaire show technology changing how the service is delivered. The fund filters based on carbon emissions and board diversity show ESG influencing how investments are chosen. These are two major sector-wide themes: technology transforming distribution and servicing, and sustainability/governance considerations affecting investor choice and product features. The other options describe different areas of finance, but not the main features shown here.
The app-based onboarding and automation show fintech, while the fund filters based on environmental and governance factors show ESG.
Topic: Introduction
A growing share of investment business is now conducted through online platforms, mobile apps and automated tools that help clients access information and transact more easily. Which broad market-development theme does this best describe?
Best answer: A
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: The stem focuses on technology changing how investment services are delivered and accessed. Online platforms, apps and automated tools point to digitalisation, which is a broad industry trend rather than a single product or market transaction.
Digitalisation of financial services means using technology to distribute, administer and access financial services more efficiently. In the stem, the common link is not a particular investment product but the way the service reaches the client: online platforms, mobile access and automated tools. That makes this an industry-wide development theme.
This differs from terms that describe specific market mechanisms or structures. Collective investment pooling is about combining investors’ money in a fund. Capital raising in the primary market is about issuing new securities. Dematerialisation is the move from paper certificates to electronic records. The key clue here is the change in delivery channel and process, not the legal form of the investment.
It describes technology-driven delivery and access, which is the hallmark of digitalisation across the investment industry.
Topic: Introduction
A retail client is comparing three UK distribution channels: discretionary portfolio management, an advised service, and an execution-only platform. Which statement best describes the usual pattern of support and decision-making responsibility?
Best answer: B
What this tests: Introduction
Explanation: The correct pattern is that support is highest when a discretionary manager is authorised to act, lower when an adviser recommends but the client chooses, and lowest on an execution-only basis. As support falls, the client takes on more responsibility for the investment decision.
Distribution channels differ chiefly by who is responsible for choosing the investment. In discretionary portfolio management, the firm makes investment decisions within the agreed mandate, so the client receives the highest level of ongoing decision-making support. In an advised service, the firm gives a personal recommendation, but the client still decides whether to invest. On an execution-only platform, the firm simply carries out the client’s instructions and does not provide a personal recommendation, so the client bears the decision-making responsibility.
The key distinction is that advice involves recommendation, while execution-only involves access and dealing without that recommendation.
These channels differ mainly in who makes the investment decision and how much personal support the firm provides.
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